By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of memory chips, has reaffirmed its leadership in the chip industry by developing the industry's first 2-gigabit double data rate (DDR) dynamic random access memory (DRAM).
Applying the ultra finer 60-nanometer processing technology, the new chip will be massively produced from later this year, the South Korean chipmaker said Wednesday.
In comparison with the previous 80-nanometer 2-gigabit DDR2, the advanced 60 nano-scale with a transmitting speed of 800 megabits per second has enhanced DRAM performance by up to 20 percent and increased production efficiency by 40 percent, Samsung added.
``The move itself has a rather greater meaning as Samsung Electronics made a room to gear up the move towards higher densities in high-end chip segments,'' said a company official.
He added the new device provides storage capacity twice as much as in existing system memory solutions, accelerating efforts by chipmakers to memory capacity.
``We expect the new chip to contribute to stabilizing the prices of DRAM chips,'' said another Samsung official.
With the introduction of the 2-gigabit DDR2, Samsung completes its DDR2 product lineup for production at the 60-nano scale from 512-megabit to 2-gigabit. Its 1-gigabit and 512-megabit chips are already being produced with 60-nano technology.
DRAM chips are widely used to make personal computers.
Market observers expect the new high-capacity DRAM to be well fitted for applications in servers, and laptop PCs where data transmitting speed is a major headache.
Gartner Dataquest, an industry research firm, estimates the 2-gigabit DRAM market to be worth some $14 billion by 2011, taking up 47 percent of the total DRAM market.
Samsung hopes that steady demand for the chip, backed by seasonal factors, will bring its chip business's third-quarter operating profits to double or triple from the second quarter.
Samsung suffered a setback in its chip business in the second quarter mainly due to sharp declines in DRAM prices. Their operating profit was 330 billion won, down 39 percent from the previous quarter.