Local memory chipmaker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) yesterday said it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Japan’s top memory company, Elpida Memory Inc, to supply memory chips for PCs, game consoles and digital TVs that handle massive graphic processing.
Under the terms of the MOU, Winbond will also secure next-generation technology from Tokyo-based Elpida to manufacture graphics double-data-rate (GDDR) memory chips and other special memory chips, company spokesman Wilson Wen (溫萬壽) said by telephone.
“Elpida will become our new technology source after our partner Qimonda AG stopped developing and providing next-generation GDDR technology,” Wen said.
Winbond hopes to make GDDR chips using more advanced technologies than the 70-nanometer and 65-nanometer technologies from Qimonda that it is using in a pilot run, he said.
“More importantly, we will be allowed to make our own-brand GDDR chips using Elpida’s technology in the future, which will bring extra business for us,” Wen said.
The partnership with Elpida will help Winbond expand into new and less volatile businesses from its standard PC memory business — commodity dynamic random access memory (DRAM) — which accounted for one-third of its NT$5.69 billion (US$176 million) in revenues last quarter.
GDDR chips, which are incorporated into graphic cards, are designed to handle demanding graphic processing at high speeds.
From the first quarter of next year, Winbond will supply a small volume of GDDR chips to Elpida, Wen said.
In a rarely seen move, Winbond raised NT$5.2 billion (up from an earlier estimate of NT$3.1 billion), or 68 percent of its capital spending for this year, to partly fund the purchase of new equipment for manufacturing GDDR chips.
Elpida’s partnership with Winbond came after the Japanese chipmaker inked an agreement with local DRAM chipmaker ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) last week to outsource production of the latest generation of mass-market memory chips, known as DDR3, on its technologies.
Winbond shares surged 6.15 percent yesterday to close at NT$7.25, out-performing the benchmark TAIEX’s nearly 1 percent rise.
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