The likes of Hitachi Ltd and Mitsubishi Electric Corp are faced with all the pressures to minimise costs and make savings as are US and European companies these days, and so they have decided that rather than compete in the emerging market for Flash memory chips, they will pool their resources. They have agreed in principle to swap Mitsubishi’s DINOR cell structure technology used in 16M-bit parts for Hitachi’s AND cell structure for 64-megabit parts, and look to save hundreds of millions of dollars as a result. Having harmonised their designs, they will consolidate their Flash memory product lines to offer common specifications in the hope of creating a de facto industry standard for the chips, which retain their state when the power source is switched off. SGS-Thomson Microelectronics BV, currently allied to Mitsubishi, is expected to join the DINOR-AND grouping, which expects to launch the first 64M-bit parts shortly. Current NOR and NAND parts need a large cell size and a 12V external power supply. DINOR and AND, incorporating the features of NAND and NOR structures, need smaller cell size and one power source.
