Aug 14, 2000

Taiwan semiconductor maker Macronix International Co., Ltd. announced that it will begin to develop NAND data flash memory products presently.

Macronix plans to commercially produce the new products in 2002 to tap the lucrative market segment, which is estimated to be worth US$3.38 billion currently. Flash memory is widely used in digital cameras and MP3 digital audio players.

According to a Japanese study, the market for code storage flash memory, used in mobile phones and routers, is about three times that for data flash memory. As production of MP3 players and digital cameras grows, the industry predicts that data flash memory will replace code flash counterpart as the market mainstay in 2004, when global production value is expected to reach US$700 million.

Many international chipmakers have proprietary technologies for making data flash memory, including Toshiba, Hitachi , and Mitsubishi, Macronix said. Toshiba transferred its NAND technology to Samsung of South Korea and SanDisk of Australia, while Hitachi and Mitsubishi have signed agreements to share their technologies for the production of data flash memory.

Wu Min-chiu, president of Macronix, said that they hope to improve on the production process of data flash memory. Macronix announced last month an agreement with Mitsubishi to acquire DINOR and AND technologies.

Responding to dim forecasts for 32Mb data flash memory over the next few years, Wu said that global demand for the chips from mobile phones would continue to outpace supply for a certain period. The pessimistic predictions, he observed, might be influenced by Cisco's recent announcement that it had an ample supply of such products from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). However, most other mobile phone makers still face shortages of the chips, he said.

The company's monthly capacity now includes 35,000 six-inch wafers and 27,000 eight-inch wafers.Macronix expects to have revenue of over NT$10 billion (US$322.5 million) this year.