DRAM industry will see higher prices per chip this year than in the last three years, says Japan's Elpida Memory.

Elpida will spend US$1 billion on new production lines and transfer chip production technology as fine as 40 nanometers and even 35 nm to its new Taiwanese partner, ProMOS Technologies (so the company can produce DDR3 on behalf of Elpida).

Elpida thinks demand for DRAM in 2010 may still rise 50% while supply will only increase 40%.

Most DRAM makers have been selling chips at a loss since H2 2007 and mainstream DRAM chips hit bottom late in 2008 at around US$0.50, far below the cost to make each chip. Mainstream DRAM prices now are around $2.50 per chip, closer to true cost of production., says Elpida.

Go Elpida Increases DRAM Production

Based on 43nm process technology, the 64Gb NAND flash chip (the highest-density single-die memory device in the world) enters production, reports SanDisk.

SanDisk developed a 4-bit-per-cell X4 memory stick, twice as many as the cells in conventional multi-level cell (MLC) NAND (2-bits-per-cell) memory chips.

SanDisk ships 8GB and 16GB SDHC cards using X4 technology as well as 8GB and 16GB Memory Stick Pro Duo cards.

Go X4 Memory Stick

Micron will ship in second half 2009 a new higher-density flash memory chip for media players so mobile processors can be relieved of NAND management.

The 8GB/16GB Block Abstracted NAND for media players and other devices has a built- in memory controller that rids processors of CPU intensive work.

Go BA NAND

Losing money on every chip they make, DRAM makers in the $28.8 billion highly cyclical computer-memory chip industry must scramble for cover to survive in 2009.

The German government of Saxony may rescue Qimonda with an offer a €150 million loan if Infineon matches it. Taiwan expects to help the country's five major chip makers. Nanya is talking to USA partner Micron, to Taiwan government and to Powerchip. TSMC might buy ProMOS' fabs and shed the company's memory business.

Japan’s Elpida asks Taiwan's Powerchip (Taiwan’s largest DRAM maker) and ProMOS (Taiwan’s most unprofitable maker) to bring all together under a single group company. (including Rexchip, Elpida’s JV with Powerchi). If you add all these makers together, they had 23.9% of global DRAM revenue in Q3-- about equal to market leader Samsung.

Go Elpida Talks About Merger

Go Nanya and Micron