Sony and Qimonda AG announced that they have signed an agreement to found a DRAM joint venture (JV) dubbed Qreatic Design.

Financial details of the 50-50 JV's formation have not been disclosed. The companies said the scope of the JV is the design of high-performance, low power, embedded and customer specific DRAMs for consumer and graphic applications.

According to the agreement, Qreatic will start with up to 30 specialists from Sony and Qimonda and will be headquartered in Tokyo. The JV is planned to start operations by the end of the calendar year, subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. Sony and Qimonda said Qreatic will substantially expand its capacities by hiring additional designers, but did not give estimates on the planned hirings or a timeframe.

Tsuyoshi Kashiwagi of Sony has been appointed as president and CEO of Qreatic Design, while Thomas Seifert of Qimonda has been named its chairman of the board.

"We believe that the joint venture will support our future product design and solutions development and will further pave the way for our product diversification in non-PC applications", Kin Wah Loh, president and CEO of Qimonda, said in a statement. "The set up of a new design center in Tokyo in cooperation with Sony is a strategic step to accelerate the worldwide R&D capabilities in that area."

"We believe the integration of both companies' technological strengths will lead to unprecedented levels of creativity and design that will continue to develop in the future," Yutaka Nakagawa, executive director of Sony's semiconductor and component group, added in the statement.

By: DocMemory
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