Japan's Toshiba Corp. <6502.T> and NEC Electronics Corp. <6723.T> will
join hands in developing next-generation chip technology to speed up
the process and limit costs, the companies said on Wednesday.
Toshiba, the world's seventh-largest microchip maker, and
eighth-ranked NEC Electronics also said they had begun talks on
further collaboration including product development and production to
make capital investment more efficient.
"As advances in semiconductor process technologies become more
complex, time consuming and expensive, the joint development will
allow the companies to share burdens and accelerate development, while
raising system LSI performance and quality," they said in a joint
statement.
Chip makers are now trying to move to chip circuitry widths of 90
nanometres, or billionths of a meter, as advanced design provides
smaller and higher-density chips at lower unit costs.
Process technologies for 65 and 45 nanometres are now under development.
Toshiba and NEC Electronics, 70 percent owned by Japanese electronics
conglomerate NEC Corp. <6701.T> will together develop process
technology for chip circuitry widths of 45 nanometres.
NEC Electronics last month reported a first-half loss and forecast a
deeper full-year deficit than expected as its microchips used in
digital electronics products such as DVD recorders come under heavy
price pressure and cellphone chip sales fall sharply as the domestic
market for high-end mobile phones becomes saturated.
Toshiba, on the other hand, posted a 46 percent rise in quarterly
profit, boosted by booming flash memory chip demand and improved PC
operations, and signaled it might upgrade its full-year forecast.
Toshiba is benefiting from growing demand for NAND-type flash memory,
a storage device widely used in digital cameras, photo-snapping phones
and portable music players such as Apple Computer Inc.'s <AAPL.O>
hot-selling iPod nano.
Before the announcement, shares in Toshiba closed up 2.01 percent at
608 yen, while NEC Electronics shares ended up 5.52 percent to 3,440
yen. The Nikkei average <.N225> was up 0.25 percent.
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