NEC, Toshiba To Start Mass-Producing 128M DRAMs Next Fall
TOKYO (Nikkei)-Japan's two leading semiconductor makers are planning to shift their DRAM production focus from 64- to 128-megabit chips in autumn 1999, on an expected surge in demand for use in notebook computers, company sources said Saturday.
NEC Corp. (6701) and Toshiba Corp. (6502) had been expected to wait until spring 2000 to make the production shift, but falling prices of 64M DRAM chips and rising sales of notebook computers have prompted the companies to speed up the move, the sources said.
A 128M DRAM has twice the memory capacity but consumes much less power than a 64M chip. They are expected to be widely adopted in notebook computers from next year.
NEC is set to invest 30 billion yen in its plants in Hiroshima and Kumamoto prefectures next spring to bring their combined monthly 128M DRAM output to 5 million chips next autumn. The industry leader plans to simultaneously scale down its 64M DRAM production to slightly below 10 million chips a month.
Toshiba intends to start monthly production of 3 million 128M DRAM chips, mainly direct Rambus-type chips with high-speed data transmission capacity, in the fall of 1999. It plans no expansion of 64M DRAM chip output, which is projected at 8 million chips a month next March.
Industry analysts initially expected the next-generation chip would be 256M DRAM, not 128M chips. But the development of fine processing technology for the chip has been delayed, making it unlikely that full-fledged production can begin before 2001.
Hitachi Ltd. (6501), Fujitsu Ltd. (6702) and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (6503) are all suffering deteriorating earnings and are not likely to begin mass production of 128M DRAMs until at least 2000.
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