The big bugbear of the semiconductor industry is that while users are always demanding more of a part that is in short supply now, putting in additional capacity takes at least six months, by which time the panic buying may be over. So it is that while users are tearing their hair over the shortage of 256K memory chips (CI No 860), NEC Corp is only able to respond by saying that it will expand output at its NEC Electronics plant in California this autumn. The plant is currently turning out 3.5m 256Ks a month, and the plan is to raise that to 5m – and the company is looking at exporting some of the output back to Japan: the soaraway yen means that US costs are on a par with Japan.
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