NEC, Toshiba in MRAM development tie-up

NEC Corp and Toshiba Corp have agreed to jointly develop next-generation magnetic random access memory chips, which are expected to greatly reduce power consumption for personal computers, cellular phones and other portable electronic devices, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, citing sources at the companies.

The partners aim to establish mass-production technology by 2005 and launch MRAM as the primary memory technology, replacing DRAMs and flash-memory chips.

The first tie-up between Japan's No 1 and No 2 chipmakers in the development of key technology marks the start of a counteroffensive by Japanese chipmakers against overseas rivals, the report said.

MRAMs are expected to be durable and substantially increase the length of time notebook PCs and mobile phones can operate on a single battery charge.

Annual demand for MRAMs as a replacement for current commodity memories is expected to reach 1 trln yen by 2007.

NEC and Toshiba have already set up a joint task force with 20 engineers from each firm. They aim to establish a production line to work on prototypes at NEC's plant in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, by the end of this year.

The two companies plan to invest more than 10 billion yen by spring 2005 to develop mass-production technology. They will initially focus on MRAMs with a memory capacity of 256 megabits, the same capacity as the mainline DRAMs currently available.

The tie-up could develop into joint production in the future, the report said.

A number of major overseas chipmakers are also working on MRAMs. Motorola Inc has already developed a prototype lower-capacity MRAM, and IBM Corp and Infineon Technologies AG have begun joint development.

NEC and Toshiba aim to develop products that have an edge in performance and price by combining their respective expertise in such fields as material processing and wiring, the report said.