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To: Shumway who wrote (14207)	1/26/1999 8:16:00 AM
From: Shumway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

more news: Kingston... Kingston ramps RIMM module production to meet Direct RDRAM demand By Sandy Chen Electronic Buyers' News (01/25/99, 07:52:04 PM EDT) Taipei, Taiwan - Memory module maker Kingston Technology Co. is ramping RIMM module production, citing increasing demand for boards that support the new Direct Rambus DRAM specification. Kingston, which is headquartered in Fountain Valley, Calif., said demand for RIMMs is around 5,000 pieces a month, but the company already has capacity in place to support twice that amount. “We hope to be able to offer capacity of 15,000 RIMM modules per day in the third quarter of 1999,” said D.K. Tsai, vice president of global operations for Kingston, who is based here. “The demand will depend on PC makers' commitment. There certainly will be some demand at the end of this year. We don't know how big it will be, but we would like to be ready for volume demand.” The RIMM ramp-up, which is under way at most top- and second-tier module makers, was aided by a recent round of seminars sponsored by Direct RDRAM proponents Intel Corp. and Rambus Inc. in Taiwan and Hong Kong. With more than 450 module, PCB, and PC designers attending the seminar in Taiwan, Direct RDRAM has garnered the support of much of the island's manufacturing infrastructure, according to representatives from Intel and Rambus. To date, several Taiwan-based module houses, including Kingmax Technology Inc. and Apacer Technology Inc., said they are readying their wares for compatibility testing with Intel's next-generation Camino chipset. Addressing lingering technology concerns surrounding Direct RDRAM, Kingston said it expects production costs of the RIMM to drop by 50% in the second half of 1999. “The printed circuit board yield of our suppliers is about 40% now,” said Tsai, “But you will be surprised how fast the improvement is every day in the DRAM supply and testing area.” Kingston currently buys commodity DRAMs from Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. and Mosel Vitelic Inc., both of Hsinchu, and from Taoyuan-based chip supplier Nan Ya Technology Corp. The company has no plan yet to buy Direct RDRAM from Taiwan DRAM suppliers, according to Tsai. Last year, Kingston invested $20 million in Direct Rambus DRAM testers and has set aside more than $12 million for high-speed-memory test equipment this year. “So far, only our U.S. plant has testers for RIMM modules,” Tsai said. “In the second half of 1999, our Taiwan plant in Hsinchu will be able to test RIMM modules.” While the Fountain Valley site is currently using testers from Hewlett-Packard Co., new machines from Japan's Advantest are slated for both Kingston's U.S. and Taiwan sites, according to Tsai. Kingston will begin accepting sample-sized RIMM orders through its website (http://www.kingston.com) as of Feb. 1, and will transition to volume orders in the future.