With DRAM prices falling significantly since the beginning of this year, Taiwan-based memory makers are eying the flash market, with ProMOS Technologies establishing a NAND flash memory card packaging joint venture and Winbond Electronics acquiring a NOR flash design house, according to the companies.

ProMOS has invested US$2.45 million to establish the joint-venture with its partners in Shanghai, China, as the China mobile phone and digital still camera (DSC) markets will push demand for memory cards, said Albert Lin, company spokesperson and COO, and ML Chen, company chairman and president.

With a 49% stake in the venture, ProMOS will be the largest shareholder of the new company, Chen said. Sources indicted that the partners are China-based handset maker Ningbo Bird and South Korea-based Hynix Semiconductor, which will provide NAND flash chips for the venture. However, Chen would not confirm the speculation.

Winbond, on the other hand, recently announced it has acquired NexFlash Technology, a US-based flash company. NexFlash markets flash products ranging from 2Mbit to 32Mbit capacities for the PC, communication and optical storage equipment markets, and the products are all manufactured by Winbond on 0.18-micron technology at its 8-inch fab, according to a Winbond press release.

By: DocMemory
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