To: DJBEINO who wrote (9537 ) 10/23/2001 11:03:07 AM From: DJBEINO Respond to of 9582 Winbond Electronics to Shift Focus to Niche ICs and Away from DRAMs October 23, 2001 (TAIPEI) -- Winbond Electronics Corp. is considering gradually exiting the unprofitable DRAM microchip business, and moving into niche-based memory chips and system-on-a-chip (SOC) devices. This is in part due to the bleak outlook of Toshiba, Winbond's source of technology transfer, in the memory chip-making business, A merger between Infineon Technologies AG and the memory chip division of Toshiba Corp.'s second largest semiconductor unit is likely to be finalized soon. The global price of 128Mb SDRAM is on the verge of falling below US$1. Nanya Technology Corp. has been forced to cut half its SDRAM production beginning from October, and to shift its effort to the production of high-priced DDR DRAM chips. Following Winbond's decision to lower its DRAM output, Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. (VISC) and Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. have switched part of their capacities to provide contract-manufacturing services. Vanguard aims to gradually transform itself into a memory chip contract maker. The company plans to enrich its products by introducing flash memory chips and low-power SDRAM chips in the fourth quarter. "With such a sluggish economy, the more DRAM chips we sell the more losses we will incur. However, the last thing we can do is to just sit idly by and accept what will happen," said Winbond's chairman. At its first performance presentation to institutional investors this year, Winbond hinted it would scale up the weight of logic chip production. Winbond will likely use its core technologies to develop logic chips and memory chips to seek new opportunities in the SOC industry. nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com