hynix

Micron Technology has prevailed in an important multi-billion dollar lawsuit brought against it and others by Rambus, a company not shy about suing memory chipmakers. Rambus saw its stock price nosedive as a result.

Boise, Idaho-based Micron, one of the world's largest memory chipmakers, said today that a jury in the California state court antitrust trial of Rambus v. Micron Technology reached a verdict in its favor, clearing it of all liability.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Rambus, a chip design house, alleged that Micron, Hynix Semiconductor and others conspired to keep Rambus-designed DRAM (RDRAM) chips out of the memory market. … Read more

Sales of semiconductors staged a healthy recovery around the world last year thanks to strong demand from makers of smartphones, tablets, notebooks, e-readers, and other popular consumer devices, according to data out today from IDC.

For the year, chip sales rose by 14 percent to $282 billion, a rebound that was felt across all sectors and global regions of the market. Among the more than 100 semiconductor makers tracked by IDC, Intel was once again the top dog, bringing in total revenues of $41.9 billion last year.

Samsung took the No. 2 spot with sales of $27.6 billion, … Read more

Intellectual Ventures, founded by former Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Nathan Myhrvold, filed three patent infringement lawsuits today against nine companies in the security, memory, and chip markets.

One lawsuit names as defendants Check Point Software Technologies, McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro and accuses them of infringing on four of its patents related to antivirus and Internet security, according to the lawsuit available for download here.

The second suit accuses Elpida Memory and Hynix Semiconductor, makers of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) and Flash memory, of infringing between five and seven of its patents. And the final suit alleges that three … Read more

Hewlett-Packard is sitting on a new kind of technology that may one day replace flash memory, but has yet to mass produce it. That appears about to change.

HP has chosen Hynix to manufacture the once-theoretical circuit technology known as a memristor, the companies plan to announce Tuesday.

Together HP and Seoul-based Hynix will develop the memristor and sell it commercially as a new memory technology called ReRAM, or resistive random access memory. The first products will be available in anywhere from three to five years, according to R. Stanley Williams, the director of HP Labs' Information and Quantum Systems … Read more

Micron Technology is entering the graphics memory business, going up against heavyweights Samsung and Hynix.

Micron, which recently vaulted to the No. 3 spot in global sales of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), is now aiming at the market for DRAM chips used with graphics processors from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices' ATI graphics unit.

The market for DRAM used with graphics processors is about 4 percent of the bits shipped into the DRAM market, according to Micron. DRAM is typically used as the main memory in PCs. This type of DRAM is also referred to as Synchronous DRAM, or SDRAM.… Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court handed chip designer Rambus a victory Monday, when it refused to hear an appeal by the Federal Trade Commission that alleged the chip designer violated antitrust laws under the Sherman Act.

For Rambus, it ends a seven-year battle with the Federal Trade Commission over its Sherman Act litigation, which alleged in 2002 that the chipmaker intentionally withheld its patent plans from a standards body, which later gave the green light to some of its technology that is now found in the vast majority of PCs and servers around the world.

"It's a good … Read more

Bad news for Hynix is translating into good news for the memory chip industry.

The world's second largest memory chipmaker will close its U.S. plant and slash production 30 percent, bringing relief to an industry plagued by glut.

This comes in the wake of a 30 percent cut in flash chip production at Toshiba and SanDisk announced Monday.

As part of this reduction in output, Hynix is expected to sell its U.S. production unit before the end of the year, according to a Reuters report citing a story in the Seoul Economic Daily on Thursday.

All of … Read more

iSuppli releases its preliminary 2008 top-20 chip rankings as semiconductor suppliers fall upon hard times.

Intel, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, and STMicroelectronics occupy the top five positions, while Advanced Micro Devices was No. 11 and Nvidia No. 20 in the ranking.

Memory chip manufacturers are some of the hardest hit. South Korea-based Hynix, which dropped from No. 6 to No. 9, and Micron Technology (No. 16) are both restructuring. Micron is reducing staff and shutting down facilities, while Hynix seeks outside investors.

Micron is expected to post a 9.2 percent revenue decrease in 2008 and Hynix's revenue should … Read more

Memory chipmakers are fighting for their life.

The memory chip market--and industry--is caught in a particularly brutal downward price spiral that is threatening the viability of even the largest players.

"Memory manufacturers who have already been losing money for several quarters are now looking at another six months to a year of absolutely ominous conditions," said Avi Cohen, managing partner at Avian Securities.

Companies are now in survival mode, according to Cohen. "It is a matter of survival and everyone needs to figure out how to stay in business over the next year or how to scavenge … Read more