Samsung pumps £350m into memory chip vision
1GB DRAM as standard, Flash drives in laptops. On their way.
By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service and Kieren McCarthy | Published: 11:23, 04 July 2005
Samsung has put a figure on its recent memory chip prediction - it will pump nearly half a billion pounds into upgrading its memory chip production lines.
The company will invest 636.7 billion won (£347 million) on improving factories producing Flash and DRAM chips.
Last week, the company not only stated in intended to leapfrog the market and make 1GB DRAM the industry standard through mass production, but it also continued pushing the idea of laptops using purely Flash drives. Now it has made clear how much it will invest in making both this predictions come true.
Flash memory chips are commonly used in devices like digital music players, digital still cameras and memory cards, while DRAM chips are typically used as the main memory in personal computers. Samsung is among the world's largest manufacturers of both types of chip.
The company will use part of the money to increase production capacity on its number 14 manufacturing line, with a view to using it for all high-end flash chip production, said a spokesman. Samsung currently produces 2GB flash chips on the line, and also plans to use it to make 4GB chips, its most advanced flash chips.
The rest of the money will be used to upgrade several DRAM lines from the current 90-nanometer production process to the more advanced 80nm process, said Park.
