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

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (40117)	11/29/2000 11:53:44 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Elpida Memory to Launch Plant for 300mm Wafers in NEC Hiroshima November 29, 2000 (TOKYO) -- Elpida Memory Inc. said it would soon begin constructing a fabrication facility to make DRAM microchips on the site of NEC Hiroshima Ltd. The construction is scheduled to begin in January 2001, semiconductor-manufacturing equipment installment will be from the latter half of 2001, follows the start of mass production in April 2002. Earlier, Elpida had announced that it planned to entrust some of its DRAM output to NEC Hiroshima and Hitachi Nippon Steel Singapore Pte., Ltd. That outsourced production is scheduled to begin from April 2001. The company also will operate its own DRAM fabrication plant, it hopes to capture 20 percent of the global DRAM market by around 2004, up from a share of about 13 percent in 2000. Elpida's new Hiroshima plant will have a floor space of 22,000m2, of which 17,700m2 will be clean rooms. Also, the facility will have an additional 18,500m2 building for administration and testing functions. The new plant will be capable to manufacture either 20,000 units converted in 300mm wafers or 48,000 units converted in 200mm wafers a month. The firm will invest about 160 billion yen over two and a half years to build the facility. (110.97 yen = US$1) NEC Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., Elpida's parent companies, will provide 50 billion yen between them, with the remaining 110 billion yen mainly coming from loans. To mark the announcement of the plan to build the new plant, NEC and Hitachi agreed to inject 10 billion yen each into Elpida's capital base to provide 20 billion yen for initial construction work. Elpida is now capitalized at 22 billion yen. It will request additional financing from NEC and Hitachi when the buildings are completed, when it will install the manufacturing equipment. President of NEC Electron Devices, Kanji Sugihara, said at a press conference that the final decision to provide additional capital to Elpida was made at a recent board meeting. Three main reasons underlie the investment. They are: (1) the 0.13-micron DRAM manufacturing-process technology that NEC has jointly developed with Hitachi has become well-established; (2) the best business strategy would be to start mass producing the 256Mb DRAM chips that Elpida has developed as soon as possible; and (3) to make the most of Elpida's cost-competitiveness to turn the company into one of the world's top three DRAM makers (it now ranks number four in global market share). Elpida is a joint venture set up by NEC and Hitachi in December 1999 to make DRAM chips. In addition to its own 0.13-micron process technology, the firm possesses the combined DRAM production know-how of both parent companies. Sales of Elpida-brand DRAM chips are scheduled to begin in January 2001 and, along with chips made by Elpida itself, DRAMs produced by both NEC and Hitachi will also carry the Elpida brand name. In September 2000, the firm's name was officially changed to Elpida Memory from NEC Hitachi Memory. At the same time it announced that it had succeeded in developing a 256Mb DRAM chip (combining SDRAM and DDR SDRAM features) using the original 0.13-micron manufacturing-process technology that it had been the first to develop. This 256Mb DRAM will be the first chip to go into mass production at the new Hiroshima plant, meaning that the DRAM production of NEC and Hitachi will be brought together under the same roof. Related stories: NEC-Hitachi DRAM Joint Venture Named 'Elpida Memory' Elpida Memory Develops 256Mb DRAMs Based on 0.13-Micron Process Technology (BizTech News Dept.)