Tech Shout!

Samsung Electronics – the world’s largest memory chipmaker, has announced that it had started the mass-production of the memory chips applying the 60-nanometer-class process technology, thereby distancing itself from competitors that are still using 80-nanometer technology.

The new process can enhance production efficiency by 40 percent over the 80-nanometer technology which has been installed in dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip manufacturing since last year, Samsung said. The company expects that advanced productivity will reduce costs and help 60-nano 1 gigabit DRAM chips become a mainstream item in 2008.

In a press release issued, Samsung said, “The mass production of 60-nano DRAMs is more meaningful since it provides a solid basis for Samsung to sustain our leadership in 50-nano and 40-nano technology.”

One nanometer is a billionth of a meter, and is used to measure how delicately semiconductor circuits are designed and manufactured. Shrinking the transistor circuits not only cuts the manufacturing cost per chip, but also increases overall chip performance and reduces energy consumption.

Samsung expected that the 60-nano DRAM revenue will reach $2.3 billion worldwide this year, and will further increase to $32 billion by 2009. Hynix Semiconductor, the second largest memory chipmaker after Samsung, is also planning to switch to the 60-nano process in the first half of the year.

Samsung created the prototype 60-nano DRAM for the very first time in the year 2005. The company has led the memory chip industry from the introduction of 150-nano DRAM technology in 2000 to a 50-nano process developed last October.