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Webfeet > Industry News Briefs Summary > Categories
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4/11/2008
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On July 19, 2007, Intel, STMicroelectronics and Francisco Partners came together to form a new pending independent semiconductor company name of "Numonyx". As of March 31, 2008 Numonyx has officially become a new semiconductor company focusing on delivering memory solutions using combinations of NOR, NAND and RAM memory technologies as well as new Phase Change Memory (PCM). Applications served are consumer, industrial devices, cellular phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, ultra-mobile computers and other high-tech equipment.
Numonyx is strongly positioned as a new company with the combined experience and patent portfolio from Intel and STMicro covering a broad range of storage technologies. Numonyx has approximately 7,000 employees worldwide with facilities in USA, Italy, China, Israel, Singapore, Malaysia, and Philippines. |
1/18/2008
On January 3, Qimonda AG and Macronix International announced they had signed an agreement to jointly development a variety of non-volatile memory technologies over a five-year period. Qimonda will contribute its 300mm wafer-based technology and non-volatile development expertise while Macronix will contribute its extensive know-how in flash memory technologies. Both partners will share development costs and contribute engineering resources and know-how. The joint development will be conducted at Qimonda’s 300mm R&D and manufacturing facility in Dresden, Germany.
Our Take
Macronix’s original Taiwan Stock Exchange filing reveals that this agreement is a “Flash Technology License and Joint Development Agreement”. This coupled with Qimonda CEO, Kin Wah Loh’s remarks concerning Qimonda’s intent to resume production of NAND flash memory chips in 2009 implies that both parties intend to participate in the NAND flash memory space.
Macronix has made some notable progress with its charge trap flash technology, BE-SONOS and it is quite possible the joint development will direct its efforts on this technology, among others. Macronix’s plan to develop 45nm BE-SONOS in 2010 does not totally square with Qimonda’s 2009 timeframe. BE-SONOS is unproven and even if both parties were able to introduce product in 2009 or 2010, they would still be one to two process generations behind the current NAND players. On the other hand, if they are successful, they could have a technology which is more scalable than the current floating gate technology.
12/4/2007
On December 3, 2007, Samsung Electronics and Toshiba Corp. announced that they have licensed to one another, the product specifications and the rights to produce and market Samsung’s OneNAND and Flex-OneNAND, and Toshiba’s LBA-NAND and mobile LBA-NAND memory chips.
Both companies plan to develop compatible products based on the respective specifications to be released next year.
8/24/2007
Seagate, a hard disk drive company announced it will offer SSDs as part of its portfolio of storage products in 2008. Bill Watkins, the CEO of Seagate disclosed this recently in an interview. Historically, Seagate has always examined alternative and advanced storage technologies. They once owned a 40% stake in SanDisk but later sold it. Which flash suppliers providing Seagate with flash chips remains to be seen but it is known they have been forging alliances with specific flash suppliers to make the transition to SSDs. Seagate stated it will address all segments of the markets, including desktop/notebook PCs and enterprise. It was stated it will introduce its first set of SSDs into the enterprise segment. This is logical given SSDs in enterprise applications are well established with growing demand for performance acceleration in this space. Coupled with Seagate's dominant share in the HDD enterprise space, they will be able to afford the opportunity of providing bundled enterprise storage solutions utilizing both storage technologies giving them an advantage with their enterprise customers.
© 2008 Copyright Web-Feet Research, Inc. 6/29/2007
WD and Komag announced the two companies have entered into an agreement for WD to acquire Komag for $32.25 in cash per share for a value of approximately $1 billion. WD is a manufacturer of hard disk drives for PCs, consumer electronics products and external storage. Komag is an independent media supplier for hard disk drives. In 2003, WD successfully integrated Read-Rite's head assets. This latest agreement with Komag is strategic in enabling WD with access to technology and supply with cost benefits. Assuming regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2007.
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