Repost from richard surckla...
This article has the typical "eetimes get your facts straight problem" but, I think the increase production tidbit is probably accurate.
Samsung to double Rambus DRAM output within months
By Robert Ristelhueber
EE Times
(12/06/99, 10:42 a.m. EDT)
KIHEUNG, South Korea — Samsung Electronics plans to double its output of direct Rambus DRAMs between now and February to meet strong demand from PC and server companies, the head of Samsung's semiconductor business said Monday (Dec. 6).
Samsung had stopped ramping production of Rambus memories in October after Intel delayed its 820 chip set, which was to support the use of Rambus memories. But resumed resumed Rambus production last month. "Many customers came to us because not many companies can supply [Rambus memories]", said Yoon-Woo Lee, president and chief executive officer of Samsung's semiconductor unit. Although Samsung is building about one million 128/144-Mbit Rambus chips per month, there is still a big market shortage of the devices, he said.
Samsung currently plans to ramp production to 2 million Rambus chips per month by February, Lee said during a wide-ranging interview here with U.S. journalists and analysts. Lee said he expects Rambus devices will make up about 20 percent of Samsung's DRAM revenue next year, even though he expects Rambus will account for only about 10 percent of the overall DRAM market.
Around 70 percent of Samsung's DRAM revenue next year will come from synchronous and EDO parts, including PC133, with the other 10 percent coming from DDR memories, Lee said.
The tilt toward Rambus fits with Samsung's strategy of increasing revenue through product mix, said Victor De Dios, who heads the market research firm De Dios & Associates (Newark, Calif.). "Almost nobody else is making Rambus because they knew Rambus was sitting on a lot of work-in-progress, and they were scared of a glut," he said.
The strategy could produce big dividends, as Rambus chips currently command a price premium of more than 50 percent over synchronous parts, said Hyung-Kyu Lim, executive vice president and general manager of Samsung's Memory Product and Technology Division. Samsung also expects by next June to produce a Rambus chip using 16 memory banks instead of the current 32, in an effort to reduce die size and improve yields, Lim said.
With only three weeks left in the year, Lee predicted that Samsung's semiconductor revenue in 1999 will be about $9.2 billion, compared to $5.9 billion in 1998. He said that "profit is tremendously improved" from last year. About $6 billion in revenue will come from memory devices, $1.1 billion from system LSI chips, and the remaining $2.2 billion from flat panel displays.
Although the percentage representing system LSI chips remained flat for Samsung this year, it represents a victory because Samsung had sold its power device business — which made up half of the company's non-memory chip sales — to Fairchild Semiconductor earlier this year, said J.B. Kim, executive director of Samsung's semiconductor strategic planning team. Samsung is focusing on chip sets for cell phones and digital TV to grow its non-memory business.
The recovery in the DRAM market has helped Samsung considerably, but strong demand for flash chips and SRAM, particularly from cell phone manufacturers, also has boosted Samsung's fortunes this year, Lee said. Although he expects the DRAM market overall to cool somewhat in the first half of 2000, it should bounce back in the second half, and shortages will persist, according to Lee.
Samsung plans a capital investment of about $2.2 billion in 2000, including $300 million to $400 million in TFT flat panels, or roughly the same as this past year, said Lee. Part of that sum will be used to complete the conversion of all DRAM fabs to 0.18-micron process technology.
An expansion of the company's Fab 9 will add another 32,000 wafers per month sometime during the first quarter of 2000, bringing that fab up to about 200,000 wafers, Lee said. A new facility, Fab 10, is expected to open in the third quarter with an initial monthly capacity of 16,000 wafers, and with a capability of being increased to 32,000 wafers per month.
Samsung is now entering the second phase of its 300-mm (12-inch) wafer pilot program. Lee said he expects to enter production on 12-inch wafers by the end of 2001, or in early 2002.
The United States is the largest regional market for Samsung's semiconductors, and accounts for 40 percent of sales. Europe is second-largest, at 20 percent, Lee said.
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