Local computer memory chipmaker ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) said yesterday it had inked an agreement with Elpida Memory Inc to supply the latest generation of mass-market memory chips, known as DDR3, using the Japanese memory company’s advanced technology.
That may be seen as a precautionary step taken by Elpida to avoid supply constraints once double data rate three (DDR3) chips replace DDR2 as the mainstream computer memory chips next year.
“Yes, that will be the main consideration,” ProMOS spokesman Ben Tseng (曾邦助) said by telephone yesterday.
ProMOS will make DDR3 chips at its 12-inch wafer plant in Taichung using Elpida’s 65-nanometer technology, Tseng said.
The Hsinchu-based company said it expected to ramp up production in the second half of next year ahead of the back-to-school PC shopping season.
Contract prices for DDR3 chips soared 36 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter as PC makers’ aggressive shift to the more advanced chips caused a shortage, Taipei-based market researcher DRAMeXchange Technology Inc (集邦科技) said.
Elpida, Japan’s biggest computer memory chip maker, has long built a close relationship with Taiwan’s dynamic random access memory (DRAM) companies. It has a venture with Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體) called Rexchip Electronics Inc (瑞晶電子) and is forming a technology partnership with the Taiwanese government-backed Taiwan Memory Co (台灣創新記憶體公司).
For ProMOS, the DDR3 deal with Elpida would help it significantly lift factory utilization at its Taichung plant, the company said in a press release.
ProMOS currently produces DDR2 and DDR1 chips at the Taichung plant, and capacity utilization has improved to 80 percent this month from 70 percent last month amid a demand recovery, Tseng said.
“We can fully satisfy customer demand for DDR2,” he said.
ProMOS hopes the recovery would help the chipmaker out of the woods.
Bigger rival Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the only Taiwanese DRAM maker able to mass produce DDR3 chips now, expects the new memory chips to account for 40 percent of its total output by the end of the year and rise to 50 percent in the first quarter of next year.
DDR3 will become the company’s major product from the first quarter of next year, Nanya Technology said.
The Taoyuan-based chip manufacturer makes DDR3 memory using more advanced and cost-effective 50-nanometer technology from US partner Micron Technology Inc.
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