Winbond Electronics has revealed plans to venture into the manufacture of NAND flash memory, joining fellow Taiwan-based memory makers Powerchip Technology and Macronix International.
Winbond indicated that the company has put R&D efforts into the NAND flash product line for two years, and expects commercial production to kick off in the fourth quarter of 2012. Winbond's NAND flash offering will initially target the niche, entry-level and mid-range market segments, according to company president Tung-Yi Chan.
Differing from Winbond's focus, Macronix is eyeing the NAND flash market for high-end storage applications, the company said previously. But both firms disclosed they have no intentions of making chips for solid-state drives (SSD) to avoid direct competition with larger international peers.
Macronix, which has delivered samples of its in-house developed NAND flash to potential customers, is expected to soon enter mass production of its NAND products, according to industry sources.
Powerchip, which is striving to turn its focus away from the PC DRAM market, has said that it is making NAND chips ranging in densities from 1Gb to 32Gb, with 40nm being the major production node. The company also noted it is set to move to a newer 28nm process for the NAND products later in 2012.
Poewrchip obtained a technology license from Renesas in 2005, and has been developing NAND production technologies in-house since.
In other news, industry sources in Taiwan have observed that some of the key NAND flash patents held by international vendors, including Toshiba, Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology, are close to expiring. This will help Taiwan-based firms to break NAND flash barriers, the sources believe.