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To: Tinroad who wrote (12532)	5/5/2000 1:04:00 PM
From: Pamela Murray	Respond to of 18366

from RB: By: ibmortgage Reply To: None Friday, 5 May 2000 at 12:48 PM EDT Post # of 301219 THIS IS HUGE NEWS... IMHO.. mAKES ME HAPPY! LOL... Rushing to catch up in a flash Chip-makers, who minimized the need for memory called "flash," now scurry to equip area plants to meet demand Thursday, May 4, 2000 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Elisa Williams of The Oregonian staff Chip manufacturers got caught off-guard. High-tech News News about Oregon high technology companies and issues, including articles about the Internet and computer products. They didn't expect consumers would take a shine to so many portable products all at once. Now memory manufacturers such as Fujitsu Microelectronics and Intel are rushing to equip their Portland-area plants to make a specialized type of memory called "flash" to play catch up. Flash memory chips are essential building blocks in a slew of mobile products because they can store information when their power is turned off. Flash memory chips are used in a wide range of products, including cell phones, digital cameras and MP3 devices that play music downloaded off the Internet. Prices on flash are rising, analysts say, because chip-makers have not kept pace with rising demand. "Through the first quarter of this year, the flash market was very strong, and a lot of companies are saying that they're looking for even better results in the second half of the year," said Brian Matas, vice president of market research for IC Insights in Scottsdale, Ariz. "We think demand will continue to exceed supply." On Wednesday, Fujitsu Microelectronics said it will spend $550 million in the next two years and will hire 300 workers over three years to equip its Gresham plant to churn out flash memory. Intel last year pulled one of its Aloha plants out of retirement to make flash memory in Oregon. Initially, Intel said it would hire 400 more workers for the project. Last week, the company said it would need an additional 100. Fujitsu is relying on forecasts that call for flash memory sales to increase from $4.5 billion last year to as much as $8.7 billion this year and $17.8 billion by 2003. That's conservative by some measures. IC Insights expects sales could reach $10 billion this year. Flash memory is so hot that Matas expects it to become the second-largest selling category of memory this year, behind DRAM. DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, is the primary memory used in personal computers. Digital cameras are expected to be one of the fastest-growing product lines requiring flash. But cell phones will continue to be the single largest driver of demand. Fujitsu estimates that about 30 percent of flash memory made today is used in cellular phones, whereas digital cameras represent about 5 percent of all demand. Not only are the total number of cell phones sold steadily increasing, but the amount of memory in each phone is roughly doubling each year. Cell phones built in 1998 had an average of 4 megabits of flash memory. By 2002, the amount of flash memory per phone is forecast to increase to 64 megabits. What is flash? Flash memory is named for the way in which it is organized. Its memory cells are erased in a single action, or a "flash." It's different from other types of memory chips, such as the DRAM chips used in personal computers. DRAM loses the data that is stored in it once power to the device is turned off. Flash memory also is electrically erasable and reprogrammable, even after it is installed in a product. That means a product using it can be updated. These characteristics make flash memory ideal for a variety of products. It is used in telecom switches, cell phones, digital still cameras, digital voice recorders and personal digital assistants. Flash also is used in desktop computers. It often is used to hold control code, such as the basic input and output system or BIOS, which enables software to perform such functions as producing screen graphics without having to directly manipulate the hardware. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can reach Elisa Williams by e-mail at elisawilliams@news.oregonian.com or at 503-221-8505.