Elpida, which trails Samsung and Hynix, said it would allocate half of the funds raised by the one-year, zero-coupon bond issue to produce smaller versions of existing chips at its factory in Hiroshima, western Japan. The other half of the funds will be used on new equipment to make 50nm chips with Taiwan partner PSC to stay competitive, an Elpida spokesman said. Using 50nm circuits would allow Elpida to make even tinier chips that would halve the cost of making a semiconductopr compared with the company's existing chips.

A 36% stake in Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second biggest dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chipmaker, is going up for sale but there are few bidders on the horizon because of a down market. Samsung Electronics is currently the No. 1 contender.

The WTO will examine whether Japan is complying with a ruling against its punitive import charge on South Korean computer chips. The WTO has twice ruled against a 27.2% charge Tokyo levies on dynamic random access memory made by South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor. Earlier this year, the WTO gave Japan until Sep 1 to bring the tariff in line with international trade rules. A third ruling against Japan in the dispute could lead to South Korean trade retaliation against Japanese goods or services.

...The debate boils down to how much speed you need," Crump said. DRAM storage is faster, but that's at a cost that's much higher than Flash-based storage. For example, 2TB of Flash-based storage costs about US$180,000, compared to about US$1 million for the same amount of DRAM-based storage. "DRAM is faster, but if flash does it for you, why spend the extra money?" he asked. In that case, it depends on the needs of the business, he said...

At VLSI 2007 Symposium, Samsung promised new materials and structures for 56nm. Samsung plans to make a number of changes to the basic transistor design – both for the cell access transistor in the memory array and the peripheral support transistors used to design the control logic. 56nm devices get a "lift" with raised source drains to improve transistor drive current.

Il Ung Kim, the sixth Samsung executive to plead guilty, has agreed to serve 14 months in a US prison, the longest imprisonment ever by a foreign defendant charged with price fixing in the US, according to the US' Department of Justice (DoJ).