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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (31662)	7/29/1999 11:42:00 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

AMD forecasts flash memory shortage through 2000 A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. Story posted 9 a.m. EST/6 a.m., PST, 7/29/99 By Bolaji Ojo Electronic Buyers' News SAN FRANCISCO -- Demand for flash-memory devices is rising at such a fast clip that the current shortage will continue for at least two more years, despite chip makers' efforts to ramp up production and increase capacity, according to a senior official at Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Ben Anixter, vice president of external affairs at AMD in Sunnyvale, Calif., said Wednesday at the BancBoston Robertson Stephens Semiconductor Conference that the worldwide market for flash. memory products will more than triple in the next four years from the 1999 estimate of $2.9 billion to approximately $9 billion in 2003. "We see the shortage in flash memory extending for two to three years," Anixter said. "Going by fabs being put in place now, the industry is going to be hard pressed to meet demand." According to Anixter, demand for cell phones outstripped industry estimates by between 50% and 100%, resulting in a shortage of flash memory products. AMD and other suppliers within the sector have seen profit margins from their flash chips double as demand for cell phones soared, while OEMs are increasing the density of chips that go into each cell phone unit. "We're getting the double whammy of more unit demand and higher density which eats up wafers," Anixter said. "Cellular phones are going. up from 4 megabytes to 8 megabytes, then to 16 megabytes and then 32 megabytes." AMD, which is locked in a pricing war with microprocessor market leader, Intel Corp., said its K7, or Athlon, chip is receiving positive reviews from the industry and that it expects PC OEMs to begin including the chip in this fall's back-to-school product line up. "The future of AMD is the Athlon," Anixter said. "We will be introducing a family of Athlon products similar to the K6 family." seminews.com