CPU3D.com

Digitimes

"Micron Technology has made further progress on its memory card deployment by settling controller IC and backend production partners. Industry sources noted that InComm and Siliconware Precision Industries Ltd. (SPIL) are the respective partners for Micron, and a secondary controller IC house may likely be added in the future.

By extending its presence from upstream memory chips to downstream finished card production, Micron will be the fourth memory maker after Samsung Electronics, Toshiba and Hynix Semiconductor, that has tapped into the memory card business, industry watchers noted. They commented that the move is logical, citing a supply glut that prompts players to seek alternatives to digest excess inventory.

The sources noted that InComm has been selected as Micron's memory card controller IC supplier. Competitors of InComm are aggressively soliciting potential orders from Micron also; therefore, more controller IC design houses may be selected in the future, they added.

Already being the packaging and testing partner for Micron on both DRAM and NAND flash, SPIL is said to have taken assembly orders for Micron memory cards also. The sources added that Micron has started placing wafer-level testing orders for DRAM and NAND flash at SPIL from the first quarter of 2008, marking a change of Micron's long-established in-house production strategy.

A consistent supply glut in the NAND flash industry has prompted fellow chipmakers to extend their presence beyond memory production, the industry watchers said. As these companies see weakening demand for memory chips, they have thus shifted to produce finished card and selling these cards in the "white-box" memory card market, or in some cases, to handset vendors.

Amid the change, those downstream memory module customers of the memory chipmakers have reduced their chip procurement amounts, as procurement costs for these finished cards is even lower. Part of their costs are saved from royalty payment to those associations (e.g.SecureDigital Association) for memory card standards as the responsibility of paying royalties will go to chipmakers themselves"

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