Didn't see this posted yet:
Fujitsu sees more delays in Direct Rambus
By Brian Fuller
EE Times
(02/16/99, 3:17 p.m. EDT)
SAN FRANCISCO — Tester and packaging problems are squeezing the availability of new Direct Rambus DRAMs, and the issue could delay a robust ramp for the devices until next year, a high-ranking Fujitsu Ltd. memory executive said Monday (2/15).
Masao Taguchi, deputy general manager of Fujitsu's DRAM Division (Kawasaki, Japan), said in an interview that tight supplies of Micro-BGA packages and of high-end testers for the fast memories is limiting the company's Direct Rambus production.
"It's happening to other suppliers as well," Taguchi said. "1999 is not going to be a Direct Rambus year. That will be 2000, when the economic situation improves for memory in general."
The industry has eyed the second quarter as the beginning of the ramp for the Direct Rambus DRAMs, although as long ago as last August executives voiced concern about the availability of chip-scale packaging for the devices.
Intel Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has begun pushing the industry forward with capital, investing last year in Micron to boost Direct Rambus capacity and talking with companies such as Toshiba and Mitsubishi about infusing them with money for the same reason.
Taguchi said Intel has not talked with Fujitsu about investing in the company.
The memory executive also said Fujitsu is rapidly changing its memory strategy to move away from its dependence on the PC market for its memory production. Fujitsu is banking on the success of a new Fast-Cycle RAM architecture, beginning with 64M-bit devices, to push its memories into areas such as digital cameras and other consumer applications. Developed largely by Fujitsu engineers, the SRAM-like FCRAM represents two significant departures from the page-mode orthodoxy. One is not multiplexing the address lines, presenting the entire address to the chip at once, rather than splitting the address up into row and column portions. The second is making the DRAM self-timed, rather than driven by external RAS and CAS clocks, and making it pipelined.
In addition, the company is rapidly off-loading memory manufacturing to foundries, such as Acer and TSMC. Taguchi said that by next calendar year, 40 percent of Fujitsu's memory production will be done externally. TSMC will account for 1 million units a month, Acer for 2 million units, Fujitsu's Gresham, Ore., fab for 2.5 million and the company's Iwate fab for 1.5 million units a month, he added.
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