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To: richard surckla who wrote (54114)	9/19/2000 6:51:45 PM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 93625

Eleven Chipmakers To Pool R&D In Advanced 0.1 Micron Chips Wednesday, September 20, 2000 TOKYO (Nikkei)--NEC Corp. (6701) and 10 other leading Japanese semiconductor manufacturers have agreed to pool their efforts and invest a total of 75 billion yen in the joint development of next-generation chip technology, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun learned Tuesday. A semiconductor's performance is largely determined by its circuit-width. The partners have a five-year plan to develop manufacturing technology for circuit-widths of 0.1 micron or less. Next-generation chip-processing technology is projected to be needed around 2003. It is expected to find applications in areas such as 4-gigabit DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) chips, which have 64 times the density of the current mainstay 64-megabit DRAM, and system chips that can rapidly process high-quality images. Japanese manufacturers used to set the pace in the field of semiconductors, but they have been seeing their share of global shipments slide as they lose ground to U.S. and Asian firms. By combining research efforts, they aim to regain their international competitiveness. Joining NEC in the project are Toshiba Corp. (6502), Hitachi Ltd. (6501), Fujitsu Ltd. (6702), Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (6503), Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (6752), Sony Corp. (6758), Sharp Corp. (6753), Sanyo Electric Co. (6764), Oki Electric Industry Co. (6703) and Rohm Co. (6963). Half of the 75 billion yen total will be split evenly among the 11 partners, while contributions to the rest are expected to be based on the value of each firm's semiconductor shipments. They will all be able to use the results of the research, though each company will move ahead on commercialization at its own pace. (The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Wednesday morning edition)