Matsushita Electronics is not the only Japanese manufacturer bidding for the clear leadership position in the next generation memory chip market, and Hitachi Ltd is investing $900m to hone its memory chip skills, increasing capacity for 1M dynamics at its Mobara and Naka plants to 3.5m parts a month by year-end and 4m a month by next May from the 2m it was doing at the end of September – particularly to meet demand for its fastest parts with 60nS access time; some of the cash will go to gearing up for the 4M generation, although Hitachi has not yet decided whether the first 4M lines will be at Musashi, Takasaki, or Kohfu; Hitachi plans to make 4Ms with access times of 60nS, 80nS, 100nS and 120nS, with the stress on the fastest ones.
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