Inside Chips, an IC industry newsletter based in Mountain View, California, has reported that National Semiconductor is planning to re-enter the US static random access memory market by buying and reselling high-speed statics produced by Sharp Microelectronics in Japan: the newsletter cited an internal Sharp Electronics memo which indicated distributors and sales reps would be informed of the pact, and a NatSemi spokesman has since confirmed the SRAM deal; Inside Chips quotes other sources that claim the link-up is experimental since such deals have soured in the past, and many companies have withdrawn from the static market within the past 12 months; other observers say that the company could not get its SRAM manufacturing costs down to an acceptable level, and has decided to give up making its own.
