Over the past several years semiconductor firms worldwide have become increasingly aware of the opportunities in the automotive market, from infotainment, to advanced telematics to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), and non-volatile memory (NVM) solution provider Macronix has staked a strong position in the booming market.

The memory market for automobile electronics has a higher entry barrier compared to that for other ICT or consumer electronics, and therefore unless a new entrant is a credible, reliable and trustworthy company, it is not an easy market to enter. When Macronix decided to enter the automobile electronics memory sector, it did so with the determination to keep on perfecting memory products in terms of both design and fabrication.

Supported by a number of different interfaces and standards, flash memory can be custom-designed for a variety of applications. Earlier designs mostly adopted the parallel bus architecture. However, demand for lighter and thinner mobile devices has been prompting the industry to simplify flash interfaces. Serial designs have enabled smaller-size flash memory with lower pin counts, and there are even mixed NOR-NAND designs. These have helped simplify the PCB layout, reducing costs for applications targeting the embedded market. The NAND flash manufacturing process may be approaching its limits, but Macronix has demonstrated its R&D strengths with new-generation memory technologies, such as PCM and ReRAM.

Avnet Memec, an Avnet, Inc. company, a leading global technology distributor, has been selected as a pan-European distributor for Macronix International Co., Ltd., a leading provider of non-volatile memory semiconductor solutions. The new agreement enables Avnet Memec to bring leading NOR, NAND and ROM technology to its customers across Europe at the earliest stage of their design.

Memory applications are omnipresent in today's digitalized information society, In particular, non-volatile memories (NVM) featuring durability, high intensity and high speed, lightweight, power efficiency, and non-volatile storage, are widely used in USB, notebooks, netbooks, tablets, cell phones, HD video and MP3 players, pen recorders, electronic pets, wearable gadgets, and digital/video cameras.

The IEEE Symposia on VLSI Technology & Circuits will be held in Hawaii, USA from June 12-15. Four Macronix papers have been selected for presentation at the Symposium on VLSI Technology, the most among all Taiwan-based companies. And of the 20-strong memory-related papers selected, Macronix also ranked number one among all participants. Especially, Macronix's papers cover the most advanced research topics including 3D NAND Flash, ReRAM, and phase change memory, showing the Company's comprehensive grasp of key technologies for next-generation memories.

Electronic components distributor Digi-Key Corporation, recognized by design engineers as having the industry's broadest selection of electronic components available for immediate shipment, and the US subsidiary of Macronix International Co., Ltd. have signed a global distribution agreement.

Hsinchu, Taiwan, Aug. 01, 2011- Dr. C.Y. Lu, President of Macronix International Co., Ltd., was selected to receive the 2012 IEEE Frederik Philips Award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) – an award that has often been described as the equivalent of the Oscar Award for electrical engineering. This award recognizes Dr. Lu for his long-term dedication to fostering technological innovation and his leadership and contributions to research, development, and industrial alliances in semiconductor technology. Dr. Lu is the first recipient from Greater China to have won this special accolade in the award's 42-year history. The IEEE will present this award to Dr. Lu at one of its major international technical conferences in 2012.

Leading non-volatile memory supplier Macronix International has announced that it has skipped the 90nm process node and moved directly to a 75nm technology, ahead of schedule. The new NOR flash products are targeted for use in networking, computing, consumer and mobile applications.