Spansion (Sunnyvale, Calif.) officials declined to comment on the status of the fab, dubbed SP1. ''SP1 is an asset of Spansion Japan Ltd. and they are weighing all possible options to help advance the reorganization process. We continue to work closely with Spansion Japan and are fully supporting customer requirements through our internal and external manufacturing resources," according to a statement issued by Spansion.

In 2007, Spansion moved into limited production in the world's first 300-mm NOR flash-memory fab. The $1.2 billion fab is located in Aizuwakamatsu, Japan.

Then, Spansion fell on hard times. Earlier this year, Spansion's Japanese subsidiary, Spansion Japan Ltd., voluntarily entered into a proceeding under the ''Corporate Reorganization Law'' of Japan to obtain protection from its creditors as part of the company's restructuring efforts.

Then, in March, the company filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Spansion recently provided an update on its ongoing restructuring efforts that are aimed for the company to emerge from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. ''We are on track for Chapter 11 emergence, which we are targeting for late Q4 2009 or early Q1 2010,'' a Spansion spokeswoman said.

Separately, Spansion said that set-top box OEMs in Asia are adopting its MirrorBit SPI Multi-I/O Flash memory. The products are aimed to simplify designs, help reduce form factors and enable lower overall system costs in many of their new models.

The MirrorBit Multi-I/O SPI family includes 32-, 64- and 128-Mbit devices, with all three densities shipping in volume production today.