January 25, 1999, Issue: 1144
Section: News
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Taiwan getting ready for Rambus
Will Wade
Silicon Valley- Taiwan's manufacturing machine is gearing up to meet the anticipated market demand for Direct Rambus DRAM, although the island's chip makers don't expect to contribute heartily to the 1999 supply picture.
A recent string of licensing deals shows that several key members of Taiwan's semiconductor industry-from DRAM suppliers to chipset makers to foundries-are preparing their lines to roll off Rambus-enabled ICs.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) will be granted a license this week to produce chipsets and memory controllers using the high-speed Direct RDRAM interface. This places the world's largest foundry close on the heels of United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), which announced earlier this month that it already has the capability of manufacturing the Direct RDRAM controller, the so-called Rambus ASIC Cell (RAC).
Winbond Electronics Corp., meanwhile, will also license the Direct RDRAM interface, and said last week that it will sample devices in the third quarter. The Hsinchu-based company will incorporate the new technology into upcoming 128/144-Mbit DRAMs, with higher-density devices to follow.
While Intel Corp. and Rambus Inc. predict the market for Direct RDRAM will take off in 1999, analysts and some suppliers believe true volume supply is a year away. This is especially true of Taiwan's chip makers, which have a reputation for waiting for markets to mature before entering.
According to Hsinchu-based United Semiconductor Corp., Taiwan's Rambus production is still in its infancy, which will limit each licensed DRAM maker to 500 or 600 wafer starts per month as of the fourth quarter.
"The shipping amount of Direct Rambus DRAM from Taiwan in 1999 will be very limited, because the infrastructure is not ready yet," said USC president Peter Chang.
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp., for example, which licensed Rambus memory last year, isn't slated to begin making chips until year's end.
"There will be more Rambus DRAM licensees from Taiwan. It's an inevitable trend," said Chris Hsieh, an analyst at Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Taipei. "To prevent them from missing the window, Taiwan IC makers or IC design houses will obtain the technology and get ready for volume production first. But the demand for Rambus DRAM won't be big until Intel's [Pentium III] microprocessor market becomes mature. We probably will have to wait until the year 2001."
Still, UMC has already delivered working RAC chips to some of its customers, according to Jim Ballingall, the foundry's vice president for worldwide marketing. UMC is offering the Rambus interface as an intellectual-property cell, which has been qualified for volume production and can be used in PC chipsets and memory controllers, or in non-PC applications such as networking devices.
Runner-up title goes to TSMC, which has created test chips using Rambus IP cells and is ready to accept customer orders, according to Kurt Wolf, the company's director of marketing.
"We believe TSMC and UMC will have at least half a dozen RAC customers each by next year," predicted Subodh Toprani, vice president and general manager of Rambus' logic products division, Mountain View, Calif. "Most of that will be for the PC market, but there are other applications that can use the RAC."
Analysts, however, say the technology isn't yet ready to take off. "We expect Rambus DRAM to account for only 5% of the DRAM market this year," said Bruce Bonner, an analyst at Dataquest Inc., San Jose. "And I don't expect to see Intel's competitors driving demand for Rambus in 1999." -Additional reporting by Sandy Chen.
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The Rambus Plan
- TSMC: Receiving Direct RDRAM license this week; has created test chips using Rambus IP cells; ready to accept customer orders
- UMC: Offering Rambus interface as IP cell; has delivered working RAC chips
- Vanguard: Is a Rambus licensee, but doesn't plan to make Direct RDRAM chips until later this year
- Winbond: Will sample devices in third quarter; will incorporate new technology in upcoming 128/144-Mbit DRAMs; higher-density devices to follow
Copyright ® 1999 CMP Media Inc.
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