ProMOS Technologies has reiterated that it has no knowledge about reported plans by it and Elpida Memory to integrate their DRAM business operations.
According to a Yomiuri Shimbun report, ProMOS has been in talks with the Taiwan authorities and its creditor banks for partial debt forgiveness. ProMOS needs to improve its financial structure in order to finalize a business integration with Elpida.
As of the end of September 2010, ProMOS' debts totaled more than NT$70 billion (US$2.38 billion).
Rumors have been circulating in Japan of a possible DRAM tie-up between Elpida, ProMOS and Powerchip Technology. Some rumors have claimed Elpida will ultimately consolidate the DRAM operations of the three.
Elpida recently announced it reached a preliminary agreement with Powerchip to purchase all PC DRAM that Powerchip manufactures, while Powerchip decided to withdraw from the commodity DRAM market. The two are still negotiating to come up with a final contract.
Elpida also outsources PC DRAM production to ProMOS, which uses the Japan vendor's stack technology to produce DDR3 chips. ProMOS's monthly output for Elpida's products is estimated at about 10,000 wafers at present. ProMOS is also allowed to produce its own-brand mobile RAM and specialty DRAM chips using Elpida's 63nm process.