hynix Semiconductor Inc. (‘hynix’ or ‘the Company’) today announced it has contracted with Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province in China for setting up a plant in China. By completing the contract,

hynix explained it is able to obtain solid footing for the long-term competitiveness since the plant is expected to help in expanding manufacturing facilities for 12-inch wafers through the alliance with STMicro, enforcing cost competitiveness by utilizing low cost manufacturing environment, maintaining leading position in the Chinese market and resolving trade issues including countervailing duties.

In addition, hynix, which reported record profit for its second quarter and posted fourth straight quarterly profit, added it aims to be a leading memory chip manufacturer as the Company secured stable financial base for the business normalization.

hynix plans to complete construction of the China chip plant by the second half of 2005 and expects to start mass production in 2006.

The post hynix Contracted with Wuxi City for the China Chip Plant first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

Hyundai Electronics (CEO: Young-Whan Kim) announced on the 11th that it concluded a strategic alliance saying it would load ‘TeaPot’, the JAVA operational system by Aroma Soft (CEO: Hyun-Jin Lee) into the JAVA chip for the use of its home information electronics products to be launched in January 2000.

The JAVA chip which Hyundai developed and released last September for the first time is a core product in the field of non-memory and it is the first commercial ‘JAVA’ processor product with remarkable functions. It displays CPU function with keeping its two-dimensional graphic engine, NTSC-type encoder, and CRT controller functions. It can be also applied to various information and communication applied products such as internet, digital set top box, screen phone with 100 MHz CLUK speed.

Particularly, the ‘TeaPot’ operational system to be loaded into the ‘JAVA’ chip has been produced in such a way that it is possible to operate it basically with the minimum memory ROM 2 Mega bite and RAM 4 Mega bite so that it is suitable for the small and light home information electronics products and information communication appliances (ex: set top box, web phone, smart phone, and POS terminal). And since the system was developed by a domestic specialized venture capital with its own technology, it is highly evaluated that the company is able to secure competitiveness for the product with low cost.

Aroma Soft Co., LTD that has concluded the strategic alliance with Hyundai Electronics has developed the commercial JAVA operational system ‘TeaPot’ for the use of Embedded System in Korea and is such a promising venture capital that has been paid attention by the industry. In 1998, it was paid attention in the fall Comdex by loading ‘TeaPot’ into the early version of ‘JAVA’ chip.

Aroma Soft has also developed personal information terminal PDA (code name: Hazelnut) with a combined use of set top box that fully assists the JAVA environment for the first time, and is scheduled to release it in the fall Comdex November. Both Hyundai Electronics and Aroma Soft expect to secure the perfect solutions to JAVA technology in the field of Internet related information and home electronics and information communications through the strategic alliance for JAVA chip. Expected demand in the world market for the JAVA chip in the upcoming year is more than $1.7 billion worth in the field of information terminal equipment such as Internet set top box and screen phone. And prosperity in the field of non memory is anticipated hereafter.

The post Hyundai Electronics Established a Strategic Alliance in the Field of JAVA Chip first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

HEI (President : Kim Young-Hwan) has won an infringement suit over a patent on semiconductor chip processing technology in a U.S. court for the first time in Korean history.

HEI is currently under process of having a lawsuit over a patent infringement on semiconductor chip against the world-renowned semiconductor maker ‘N’ in the Eastern District Court of Virginia in U.S. Out of the 7 cases that were lodged with the court by HEI over its own patent rights, this was the first one to be tried in the court and won by HEI. HEI expects to raise an annual royalty of $100-200 million on its technology and to save costs.

HEI’s winning of this case is especially meaningful in that it’s the first- ever internaitonal patent right case won by Korean manufacturer for its own patent and also that it provided a turning point for improving the practice of patent licensing contracts which were made disadvantageously to the domestic makers by foreign advanced chip makers.

The patent right that won the case this time is one of the crucial technologies needed in chip manufacturing process, and is used in producing 16M/64M/128M DRAMs. HEI has obtained an exclusive right for the patent in U.S till the year 2010 by applying and registering the patent, researched and developed on its own.

The patented technology makes marked improvement in chip integration and manufacturing process by connecting circuits in memory chips efficiently, and so is expected to be used by most of semiconductor makers in U.S. that sell DRAMs. HEI expects to raise royalty from these companies. Usually the royalty for one crucial patent right is more than 1% of the total sales volume.

The suit was launched by HEI as a counter-suit against ‘N’ which initially lodged complaint with the court in December of last year. Cases of both ‘N’ and HEI are currently pending.

The post HEI Wins Chip Patent Suit in US first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

HEI (President : Kim Young-Hwan) development of the world’s smallest 72 megabit direct Rambus dynamic random access memory chip enbales it to start full-scale competition in next-generation’s super speed memory chip market.

HEI plans to ramp up its production of Rambus DRAMs from the ist quarter of the year ’99, increasing the number of chips to be produced/supplied to over 1 million per month from the 2nd quarter of the same year. With the development of Rambus DRAM, HEI has almost finished developing DDR(Double Data Rate) DRAM and Sinklink DRAM, representative next-generation super speed DRAMs, and plans to produce samples soon.

HEI’s development of these super speed DRAMs enables it to compete effectively in next-generation super speed DRAM market including 64M synchronous DRAM market for PC-100. HEI ‘s DRAM, which applied/developed the technology of using design rule of 0.22 micron circuit width, reduces the size of the chips 20% compared to the size of existing products. The smaller the size of the chips are, the more the number of chips can be produced per one sheet of wafer, thus cutting the production cost that much. Also, by using low volatage of 2.0-2.5V and low electricity, and utilizing micro ball grid array packaging technology, the one for miniaturized semiconductor chips, to realize the smallest size possible, the product can be used for notebook PCs which require low electricity as well as high performance computers such as desktop PCs and workstations.

At present, HEI is considered to have developed a product most likly to succeed in mass-producing among the world’s 14 biggest chip manufacturers that have licensing contract with Rambus for developing Rambus DRAM. HEI is getting favorable opinions on its newly developed Rambus DRAM’s specifications from the world’s two biggest PC manufacturers, Compac and Dell, and is displaying Rambus DRAM chips and RIMM Rambus In-line Memory Modules at IDF(Intel Developer Forum) from 15th to 17th of September. Also, Rambus DRAM is expected to have about 15% of total market share, which is worth 3 billion dollars, in semiconductor market for chips over 64M DRAMs by the year 2000.

The post HEI Devlops the World’s the Smallest Direct RAMBUS DRAM Chip first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.