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Technology Stocks : Cymer (CYMI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cymeed who wrote (17222)	4/29/1998 10:30:00 AM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 25960

Samsung puts .18 micron into production for its 256M DRAMs, using 8 inch wafers. The ante has been upped, and the other chipmakers have to invest in DUV to stay in the game...... koreaherald.co.kr 04-30-98 Samsung Produces 256M DRAMs; First in World to Start Making Next-Generation Chips Samsung Electronics announced yesterday that it has begun sampling 256-megabit dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips. Samsung said it is the first chip manufacturer in the world to start production of the next-generation memory chips. ''We will begin mass production of the new chip early next year, opening the era of 256M DRAMs two or three years ahead of expectations and at least one year ahead of any other memory chip manufacuturer in the world,'' said Hwang Chang-kyu, an executive of the company's R&D center. Samsung has already sent samples of the new chip to seven leaders of the global computer industry. They include IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, Intel and Sun Microsystems. According to Hwang, the new chip represents many technological breakthroughs achieved by Samsung. First, the company used, for the first time in the world, 0.18-micron process technology to produce the high-density chip. The global chip industry is still in the stage of using 0.35-micron process technology. Even Intel, the world's most advanced chip manufacturer, plans to use 0.18-micron technology to production of its next-generation microprocessor, called Merced, which is due out in the second half of next year. Second, Samsung successfully produced 256-megabit pieces using its present 8-inch wafer facilities. The conventional wisdom has been that chip manufacturers would have to use 12-inch wafers, instead of 8-inch ones, to be profitable in the 256-megabit DRAM business. The larger wafer allows chip producers to pack about 2.5 times more dice than the smaller one. But the cost of developing the technology and buying the equipment for 12-inch wafers is prohibitively high, especially for Korean chip manufacturers beset by rock-bottom memory prices and cash shortages. ''There have been concerns that the domestic chip industry will face crisis in the future because of its present inability to invest in 12-inch wafer lines,'' Hwang said. ''But we dispelled such concerns by demonstrating that 256-megabit chips can be produced on the existing lines for 64-megabit pieces.'' According to Hwang, Samsung's ability to produce the new chips at low costs will advance the generational change from 64-megabit pieces to 256-megabit products. Samsung expects the new chips will first begin to be used for workstations and high-end PCs next year. They are seen to emege as the mainstay of the global chip market starting in 2001. The company expects demand for its new chips to grow from $500 million next year to $3 billion in 2000 and to $9.4 billion in 2001. Third, Samsung's new chip comes in the same size as that of a 64-megabit piece, meaning that it can be used for existing computer systems designed to work on 64-megabit or 128-megabit memory chips. ''The fact that the new chip fits in with present PCs means that its production can be easily related to revenue,'' Hwang said. The new chip features a maximum operating speed of 167 megahertz, much faster than that required by PC-100, the specifications set by Intel for next-generation PCs. It operates at a low voltage of 3.3v and consumes 70mA of power, 70 percent of the power needed for a 128-megabit piece. A 256-megabit memory chip can store data equivalent to over 2,000 newspaper pages. (YKH) Samsung has applied for domestic and overseas patents for over 500 design and process technologies it has developed.