South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday it has developed a 1-gigabit dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip based on the latest 50-nano technology.
The world's largest memory chip maker said that it will mass produce the new memory, mostly used in personal computers, in the first quarter of next year. The company expected its global market to grow to US$55 billion by 2011.
A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, and fewer nanometers mean more semiconductors can be produced from a wafer. Currently, chipmaking companies are using 80-nano technology in producing DRAMs.
Samsung said the latest manufacturing process, the first of its kind in the world, will enhance productivity by 200 percent compared with the existing one.
"With the development, we have succeeded in widening the technological edge over other market players by more than a year," a Samsung official said.
The company has been leading global efforts to develop enhanced chipmaking processes since 2000 when it unveiled the world's first memory chips based on 150-nano technology. It was also the first to develop DRAM chips using 60-nano technology last year. The global DRAM market is growing at a fast pace, boosted by increased demand for computers and other devices. According to market researcher Gartner Dataquest, the DRAM market will amount to some $30 billion this year and expand to $35 billion next year.
Samsung forecasts that its sales of DRAMs will reach $10 billion this year.
Seoul, Oct. 19 (Yonhap News)
Samsung Electronics develops 50-nano memory chip |
