Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) saw its shares soar by almost 7 percent after the memorychip maker was selected to report its latest findings in making new memory chips at the prestigious International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM).
One of the five reports is set to be about a new technology developed by Macronix to make flash memory chips that have a lifetime 100,000 times longer than usual, the Hsinchu-based chipmaker said in a statement.
Marconix, which supplies memory chips to video game console maker Nintendo Co, said it hoped to ramp up production of the so-called “self-healing” flash memory, aiming to make the technology another revenue source by licensing it and charging for its use.
Shares of Macronix jumped 6.92 percent to NT$8.96 yesterday.
Flash memory lifetimes are limited by use because repeated save and erase cycles degrade the funnel oxide that insulates flash memory cells. However, Macronix researchers have built flash memories that can heal themselves by means of tiny onboard heaters that provide thermal annealing to the spots where it is needed.
The devices have demonstrated record-setting endurance by withstanding more than 100 million save-erase cycles without losing data, compared with existing flash memory chips’ 1,000-cycle limit.
Macronix is scheduled to present five reports during the IEDM, which is to be held from Dec. 10 to Dec. 12 in San Francisco, California. It has presented 45 reports at these meetings over the past 12 years.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
A new worry has been rippling across the stock market lately: Entire businesses, not just their employees, might be thrown out of work. While most economists say fears of an artificial intelligence (AI) job apocalypse are overblown, seismic shifts have happened in the past after big tech breakthroughs. The IT revolution of the 1990s led to a surge in productivity that sped up the US economy for several years. It also rendered companies or even industries largely redundant — from travel agents and stockbrokers to classified advertising and newspapers, or video rental stores. Economists expect AI would deliver higher productivity,
RSS