TOKYO--NEC Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. here today announced a joint venture in DRAM development, marketing and mass production. The 50-50 joint venture will be called NEC-Hitachi Memory Inc., and it is set to begin operations on April 1, 2000--the start of the next Japanese fiscal year.
NEC's DRAM production complex at Hiroshima and its memory fab in Singapore will integrate production capabilities to serve as foundries for the new joint venture, according to the two companies. Other NEC and Hitachi fabs will be available to provide additional DRAM capacity if needed.
Kenji Tokuyama, executive vice president and general manager of NEC's LSI Memory Operations Unit, will become president of the joint-venture company. Tokumasa Ysaui, general manager for memory operations at Hitachi Semiconductor and Integrated Circuits Group, will become executive vice president.
NEC-Hitachi Memory will also start joint development of DRAMs with the 256-megabit and 512-Mbit generations, using 130-nanometer (0.13-micron) design rules. Initial products are expected to be available in 2001.
The venture will also begin integrating the DRAM sales operations of the two firms. A common brand name, not yet identified, will be used for the current DRAM products of the two companies that will be sold by the new firm, as well as for new generation chips to be developed.
NEC-Hitachi Memory will start life in April will about 200 employees and grow to more than 600 by April 2001. Capitalization for the first fiscal year will be about $24 million (2.5 billion yen). Headquarters for the new venture will be in Tokyo.
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