Intel and Micron's Joint Venture in 3D Memory Chips

choi

Vindu Goel, Chip Makers Plot a Future in US. New York Times, Feb 27, 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/ ... acturing-trump.html

Quote:

"Looming in the background is China, which is currently a bit player in the industry but has committed to spend upward of $100 billion to create a world-class chip industry.  The cn.nytimes.com has not translated it.

"Intel converted an aging factory it built a decade ago in Dalian, China, into one that produces state-of-the-art 3-D memory chips. * * * China is an integral part of Intel's long-term strategy. Although national security rules restrict the export of certain American chip technologies, the company has found other ways to operate in the country, where most of the world's computers and smartphones are built.  In 2014, for example, Intel bought a 20 percent stake in Tsinghua Unigroup, part of a state-owned company that is behind much of China's chip ambitions. As part of the $1.5 billion deal, Intel gained a stake in Spreadtrum Communications, a Chinese chip maker, and agreed to license some of its older technology for Spreadtrum's system-on-a-chip products")

My comment:
(a) The report is not informative. So there is no need to read it.

(b) The quotation above is what the report says about China. What intrigues me is the Dalian sentence: It did not say what Dalian facility did before.
(i)
(A) News release: Intel and Micron Produce Breakthrough Memory Technology. by both companies, July 28, 2015
https://newsroom.intel.com/news- ... -memory-technology/
("New 3D XPoint™ technology brings non-volatile memory speeds up to 1,000 times faster than NAND, the most popular non-volatile memory in the marketplace today. * * * Now in production, 3D XPoint technology is a major breakthrough in memory process technology and the first new memory category since the introduction of NAND flash in 1989")
* Take notice: DRAM is VOLATILE.
* non-volatile random-access memory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-volatile_random-access_memory
(B) The latest news (dated Feb 10, 2017) on "3D XPoint (pronounced 'three dee cross point') * * * The first 3D XPoint storage should hit the market this year. Branded 'Optane' [by Intel, whereas Micron calls the same 'QuantX'] * * * "
(ii) Don Clark, Intel to Convert Processor Chip Factory in China to Make Memory Wall Street Journal, Oct 21, 2015.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/int ... ry-chips-1445368532
http://www.sino-us.com/72/Intel- ... e-memory-chips.html

I brought this report to your attention back then.

(c) "LEHI, Utah — Nestled at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains here, the IM Flash plant * * * [is equipped] hulking machines that deposit and etch microscopic layers of material to build the most advanced memory chips in the world. * * * For Intel and Micron Technology, the two American companies that jointly own and operate IM Flash, the venture allows both of them to sell cutting-edge, three-dimensional memory chips while sharing the multibillion-dollar costs of a modern semiconductor factory."
(i) Lehi, Utah
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehi,_Utah
(ii) IM Flash gots its name from the first letter of each parent.