Taiwan Memory Company might fail

A TAIWANESE GOVERNMENT backed deal with Elpida Memory to create a super RAM maker called Taiwan Memory Company might fail, a rival chipmaker has warned.

Michael Sadler, executive VP of Inotera Memories, said that TMC may not succeed in revitalising Taiwan's ailing memory-chip industry because struggling local DRAM makers are still burdened by huge debts.

TMC does not have any production lines of its own and was expected to initially target the niche memory market with technology from Elpida.

Speaking to Digitimes, Sadler warned that such an idea might not work because its survival in the niche market will depend on whether a company already has developed mature technology for standard memory.

He said that it was not clear if Elpida will give full technological support to TMC, as the Japanese maker sees niche memory technology as the core of its competitiveness.

Sadler's own outfit Inotera has partnered with Micron, which has also indicated that it might work with TMC if it could be the outfit's sole technology partner. Micron is worried that its technology might be leaked to competitors if different camps worked together under the TMC framework.

Sadler added that Micron's partnership with Inotera may extend to the NAND flash segment in the future. However before Micron will do that, Inotera needs to first expand its DRAM manufacturing capacity and Micron needs approval from Intel for outsourcing NAND production. µ