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Competition in the NAND Flash memory chip market is heating up amongst the market's leaders. Widely used in digital cameras and mobile phones, NAND Flash memory is expected to lead the next-generation memory chip market, with its market size likely to reach US$21.2 billion by 2009. It has also enjoyed higher growth and a smaller price drop than DRAM used in PCs. That's why semiconductor companies are pouring their efforts into NAND Flash.
Hynix said Tuesday that it will start mass producing 16 Gb multi-level cell NAND Flash chips using its industry-leading 48-nano technology from next year. The 48-nano process is 10 percent more productive than market leader Samsung Electronics' 51-nano process, and 20 percent more productive than Toshiba's 56-nano process, Hynix said.
Samsung meanwhile is working to create new markets for the chips. As part of that effort, it has developed a 64 Gb solid state drive (SSD) for data storage, an industry first. Similar to hard disk drives, SSDs are expected to grow more than 70 percent annually. The Korean company has also developed compound NAND Flash chips such as its OneNAND and Flex OneNAND fusion chips.
Japan's Toshiba, the original developer of the NAND Flash chip, is turning up its efforts to restore its leadership in the market. In October it announced a plan to invest W8 trillion (US$1=W923) by 2009 to mass produce 30-nano NAND Flash chips. Not only that, it recently completed a large new plant in the island nation.
Some companies are even joining hands to develop the market. Samsung Electronics and Toshiba have agreed to share Samsung's technology for OneNAND and Flex OneNAND. The agreement stems from their common interest in enlarging the market through partnerships since the chips are in the initial stage of distribution.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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