The Nishiwaki, Japan-based KTI Semiconductor Ltd joint venture of Texas Instruments Inc and Kobe Steel Ltd will start commercial production of 16M-bit dynamic memory chips late this year according to Kobe: the plant cost $425m to build and is capable of producing 9,000 8 silicon wafers a month, with design rules of 0.5 micron; the new company plans to expand its product range to application specific integrated circuits, application specific standard products and other CMOS logic devices; the plant aims to produce about 1,000 8 wafers a month in the year to March 31 1993, raising that to 7,000 wafers a month the following year and reaching full capacity in 1994; Texas has a 25% stake in the firm.
