The memory chip game has become one of oneupmanship, bluff and hype, and six companies – Hitachi Ltd, Fujitsu Ltd, Texas Instruments Inc, Toshiba Corp and Mitsubishi Electric now say they are shipping samples of 4M-bit memory chips: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co will start sampling next month, Oki Electric says it will sample in October, and Siemens AG says it will start making the things in the year starting October 1; NEC, bested by Toshiba in 1Ms parts, wants to be the first with volume production, and is talking of starting to make commercial ships in December.