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Taiwanâ??s memory merry-go-round
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The consolidation in DRAM memory manufacturers is still looking a distant dream after many months and two quarters of this year already gone without any real developments. Taiwan government’s new quango, Taiwan Memory Co is being supported with a paltry NT$30 billion, just enough for office expenses while few memory players are wanting to actually play with TMC in the playground!
New news of the silly situation highlights that the Taiwan government is hoping to invest in a couple of struggling firms as soon as they have received proposals from them.
You would have thought this would all have been done months ago. Indeed it probably was and that didn’t suit anyone so it would seem were entering another phase of negotiations as the story seems to suggest.
Basically, nothing has really happened and this new round would suggest that nothing probably will, but we can all keep our fingers crossed.
Although the financial issues are the biggest problem, the real challenge should any or all survive the financial crisis is migrating to more competitive technology nodes. Samsung, Hynix and Micron are all now racing ahead with 50nm production and below, while Taiwan sits hopelessly at the 70nm node.
It will take 3 to 5X the NT$30 billion TMC is being entrusted with to get that job done. Unfortunately a job they don’t seem set up to do. You would have thought that the merry-go-round would have stopped by now!