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Technology Stocks : Micron Only Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fabeyes who wrote (40873)	11/14/1998 8:37:00 AM
From: sandstuff	Respond to of 53903

Siemens doubles marketshare in the last three years.... Why isn't Micron going after Siemens who is now about 10% of the market? Seems to me they must have bought marketshare with low cost DRAMS...no dumping here??? November 16, 1998, Issue: 1035 Section: News Sour memories today, sweet success tomorrow? Peter Clarke and Brian Fuller Munich - Andreas von Zitzewitz, president of the memory-products division, is the man in the middle within Siemens' semiconductor group. It is his division that has driven up the enormous losses, around $720 million across the whole group, due to the collapse of DRAM prices over the last two years. Yet it is also his group that could be an engine for sales growth, profits, technology development and a top 10 position in ICs for a newly independent and stock-market-listed Siemens Semiconductor if and when the market turns up. "We can use the shares as currency," said Von Zitzewitz. "In a new environment we will be able to maneuver much more quickly." The executive said that despite its losses, Siemens' memory business has made tremendous technical and sales progress. "We have doubled market share in three years," he said, and "in that time we have changed from being a follower to a leader." At the Electronica show here last week, Siemens showed its first 1-Gbit DRAM, claiming that at 390 mm2 and with a data rate of 400 Mbits/s per pin, it was the smallest die and fastest example of such a part. The synchronous DRAM is manufactured in 0.18-micron CMOS process technology and offers double-data-rate (DDR) functionality, the key to its speed. The 1-Gbit device will become available in the second quarter of next year. Meanwhile, Von Zitzewitz said he expected to be shipping "significant volumes" of the 256-Mbit DRAMs at the end of the first quarter of 1999. "During the next few months we are pursuing the design wins," he said, adding that the key was to fulfill demand in high-value applications, such as servers and workstations. "We expect a price of about t 10 times the 64-Mbit DRAM, but let's wait and see." Siemens' wafer fab at Dresden, in eastern Germany, is the source of the early volumes of the 256-Mbit DRAMs and also the location of the company's pilot line for 300-mm wafer processing, a joint venture with Motorola. Von Zitzewitz said that this 12-inch wafer technology is going according to plan and will yield the first working devices in 1999. Siemens will transfer the technology to its main wafer fabs in 2001. "I tried to convince the guys to do it cheaper, but not slower," he said. "Based on the outlook of the market, we will need a 300-mm factory in 2001." Von Zitzewitz also said the company was starting to develop a ferroelectric RAM for potential commercial deployment. "It's the universal technology. It combines the benefits of flash, SRAM and DRAM, but as a replacement for DRAM I don't see it in volume in the next five years," he said. "We have a new design of a 4-Mbit ferroelectric RAM, but it's not exactly a volume part." Von Zitzewitz said the company would trail the part out to a few customers to see how it met applications requirements. Siemens might then push to maximize the density, and might skip a generation of technology or two. "The target is next year to bring out a 4-Mbit ferroelectric in 0.5 micron," he said. While ferroelectric may be a part for the future, DRAM for now remains at the core of the memory division. As such, the actions of Korean manufacturers have been a source of dismay. "The Koreans have not financed their growth with earned money," von Zitzewitz charged. Earlier this year, Siemens filed suit against LG Semicon, alleging infringement of a number of patents. "There are other cases we are investigating," he said. "All the companies who use our intellectual property where we cannot use their IP-we have to be compensated."