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SEOUL - The world's two largest memory chip makers forged an alliance Wednesday to develop next-generation semiconductors so South Korea can stay ahead of foreign rivals.
Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor will jointly develop spin torque transfer magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) chips under a state-backed programme starting in September.
The new type of memory chip is expected to play a significant role in flash memory development, by helping researchers overcome current capacity limits.
The rare tie-up was part of a research and development agreement signed by the heads of all local semiconductor firms and research laboratories as well as Knowledge Economy Minister Lee Young-Ho.
It will help South Korea retain its global leadership in the microchip market and take the global initiative in developing next-generation chips, Lee said in a statement.
"I welcome the alliance for technology cooperation by our semiconductor firms, which are now faced with a challenge from their foreign rivals," he said.
The agreement came after Japan's Toshiba, NEC and Fujitsu joined forces and agreed to spend three billion yen (28.3 million US dollars) from 2006-2010 to develop STT-MRAM devices.
The rare tip-up between Samsung and Hynix will help secure vital technologies locally and avoid future royalties, the ministry said.
As South Korea was a late starter in the memory chip field, its firms must currently pay hundreds of millions of dollars every year to companies like Intel and Toshiba that hold patents to DRAMs and NAND flash memory devices.
Government officials say the alliance will help Samsung and Hynix become the industry standard-setter for the 450mm wafer fab market. They also agreed to buy more locally-made wafer parts, materials and equipment.
Under a seven-year programme that began in 2004, 52.58 billion won (50.9 million US dollars) will be spent in total to help South Korea design and make STT-MRAM and other non-volatile memory devices.
Non-volatile devices such as flash memory units are gaining importance because they can store information even if power is turned off.
Officials have said the the government was footing 28.45 billion won of the total. It hopes to use the technologies developed to seize 40 percent of the non-volatile memory chip market by 2012. - AFP/ir
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