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SAMSUNG UNVEILS FUTURE MEMORY SEMICONDUCTOR STRATEGY

In a recent press conference Samsung, one of the world's largest chipmakers, outlined the current status and forecasts for the memory field, as well as new products and technology. The company, in particular, said nano processing will be employed to mass produce the next generation of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips.

Samsung said it has been successful in the development of the world's first working prototype of a 2-gigabit (Gb) NAND flash memory device. It has also acquired the mass production capability to make use of the 90 nano-class processing technology for DRAM manufacturing.

Korea's number one electronics company said the 90 nano-class technology will allow chip makers to overcome the "0.10-micron barrier." It also said production of DRAMs by this method was a revolutionary milestone to reduce size and enhance the capabilities of semiconductors.

The 90 nano tech can be used to perfect the 70 nano-class process and can be applied to the so-called fusion memory chips of the future.

"A 2-Gb NAND chip allows for the creation of a thumbnail size 4-Gb memory card that in turn has enough data storage capacity to hold 70 music compact discs or four full length video movies," Samsung officials said.

In addition, SEC said the future market for NAND flash memories will translate into greater mobility and multimedia applications for digital cameras, game machines and personal computers (PCs).

It will also mean the phasing out of films for cameras and PC floppy disks.

Besides this, Samsung said the 90 nano-class technology has allowed the setting up of a 20,000 unit capacity 300mm wafer line by March 2003. The chipmaker said this line will be managed in conjunction with the flash memory DRAM production to enhance efficiency of the overall chip manufacturing processes. It will moreover give Samsung the edge to move beyond the 0.12-micron processing skills of its competitors.

Top of the line 512-megabit (Mb) double data rate (DDR) modules and 1-Gb DRAMs are to be made on the 300mm wafer line.

Meanwhile, Hwang Chang-gyu, the president of SEC's memory chip division, said memory chips were making revolutionary leaps with the expansion of the information technology (IT) businesses worldwide.

"The current paradigm is a shift from PCs towards more versatile and high capability digital gadgets," the top executive said.

In relation to its business makeup and its analysis of the latest DRAM market, SEC said it has started to move away from its reliance on general PCs in 2001. It has raised the percentage of its overall business in the super-fast DDR synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), Rambus and graphic DRAM chips to 70 per cent of goods it makes.

This they claimed has led to better sales despite the drop in SDRAM prices on the world market.

Samsung then said in the next five years the company will retain its dominant position as the top memory chipmaker worldwide, while expanding its operations to encompass server services, development of work-stations and become a global player for mobile phones, electronic game machines, digital TVs and other digital appliances.

The electronics giant forecast its sales in 2005 will reach US$14 billion, while estimates for 2010 are $25 billion.