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To: Toby who wrote (5430)	5/18/1998 8:58:00 AM
From: Ian@SI	Respond to of 10921

Toby, Carl may very well be right when he states that 256Mb chips can't be produced profitably on 200mm wafers but only after price crossover with 64Mb chips. DRAM makers continue to innovate. By migrating to .18æm and 256Mb chips, once yields have been improved, the chipmaker would get about 1/2 as many chips per wafer at much more than 4* the price per chip (initially). As has always been the case in this sector (or others), he that gets there first gets the spoils. FWIW, Ian. +++++++++++++++++++ Mitsubishi to use advanced method for DRAM production May 18, 1998 Source: Kyodo Kyodo via NewsEdge Corporation : NEW YORK, May 15 (Kyodo) _ Mitsubishi Electric Corp. of Japan will sharply increase the number of chips per wafer when making its dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips by means of state-of-the-art production technology, company officials said Thursday. The move is an attempt to reduce manufacturing costs and improve competitiveness, the officials said. Specifically, Mitsubishi will use 0.18- to 0.20-micron technology, rather than 0.25- to 0.35-micron technology, for the production of 64-megabit DRAM chips, they said. With the advanced method, 20,000 wafers can be made into some 15 million 64-megabit DRAMS, compared with 3 million using conventional technology. The new method, which is usually applied to 256-megabit DRAM chips, will reduce manufacturing costs by 50 to 60%, the officials said. The technology shift, which will begin in September, will boost Mitsubishi's capacity to produce 64-megabit DRAM chips at plants in Japan and overseas to 8 million units a month by early next year and to 10 million by 2000. +++++++++++++++ and an extract from a story which was extracted on the RMBS thread... Eventually, 256-Mbit and gigabit-scale memories are expected to open up new markets-a 256-Mbit DRAM can store four hours of audio recording, for example. But for the next two years, the 256-Mbit-density parts will be used primarily in high-end computer systems where the per-chip price is less important than the system performance. Samsung quoted Dataquest estimates of a $239 price per 256-Mbit DRAM in 1999, dropping by half in 2000 and to $55 per chip by 2001. International Data Corp. forecasts a $200 million market for 256-Mbit DRAMs next year, increasing to $880 million in 2000 and growing quickly to $9.4 billion in 2001, according to Akira Minamikawa, senior semiconductor analyst at IDC Japan.