TAIPEI, TAIWAN: Macronix International Company (MXIC) and Winbond Electronics are joining hands for their NOR flash capacities to increase their share in the worldwide market.

Macronix is projected to get hold of a 12-inch fab from ProMOS Technology, whereas Winbond devices ramping up its capability for NOR flash chips to 10,000 wafer starts a month in the second half of the year 2010.

Macronix apparently shall very soon wrap up an agreement to acquire ProMOS's facility situated at the Hsinchu Science Park (HSP), having a monthly capacity of approximately 50,000 12-inch equivalent wafers.

Sources indicate that the supplementary capacity will facilitate easiness to its fixed supply of NOR flash memory and accomplish increasing ROM demand for Nintendo's game consoles.

Macronix has held that it is looking to purchase one of ProMOS's 12-inch wafer fabs, and would make use of it to manufacture 45nm ROM and 75nm NOR flash products.

According to the company’s sources, Winbond has increased monthly capacity for its NOR flash products from 4,000 wafers to 7,000, and is ready to raise it to 10,000 by the second half of the year 2010.
 
Winbond representative Wilson Wen was quoted in earlier reports saying the business anticipates to ramp up total wafer starts at its 12-inch fab to 55,000 units a month from 35,000 at present, through increasing its existing production services.

Besides NOR flash, Winbond in addition produces specialty DRAM, mobile RAM and graphics DDR (GDDR), plus a small amount of commodity DRAM.

Macronix and Winbond are likely to hold their quarterly investors conferences on April 28 and April 27, correspondingly.