Putting market leaders Intel, AMD, Fujitsu and Atmel on notice, Samsung Electronics Co said yesterday it will begin volume shipments of 128Mbit Flash RAM chips in the third quarter. Samsung begins sampling the 128Mbit device one year after its 64Mbit Flash hit the streets and produced in the same process. Two chips can be linked together to provide 256Mbit capacity before the introduction of 256Mbit parts. Samsung, which last week began sampling 0.23 micron 128Mbit SDRAM, says the Flash equivalent part is fabricated in 0.27 micron process and runs at 2.7 volts, the voltage used by mobile phones. Flash memory chips retain stored data when power is turned off. They are smaller – and more expensive – than conventional memory chips and use less power. Samsung wants 5% of what it thinks will be a $3bn to $4bn market for flash memory in 1999, $5bn in 2000.
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