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Japanese IC firms join 0.1 micron development effort

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CIOL Bureau
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Five leading Japanese chipmakers, Toshiba, NEC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi and Fujitsu

are reportedly planning to join a government-led joint venture to develop new

semiconductor production processes and tools for the next generation of ICs

featuring 0.1 micron (100 nanometer) and below.

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Japan's government has approved a $240 million investment for the program

designed to ensure Japanese firms will have leading edge production technology

available to compete on the world IC markets in the 2003-2006 time frame..



Earlier, the same companies joined long-term government-supported projects to
develop technologies for circuitry of 0.07 micron or less.

"With the five big chipmakers at the core, we will start developing

semiconductors with 0.10 micron circuitry using the existing technological

framework." said a spokesman for the Japan Electronics and Information

Technology Industries Association (JEITA). Because of Japan's problem-plagued

economy, Japanese chip makers have been conservative in their R&D and

capital investments while their foreign competitors have invested heavily.

Without a concerted effort, Japan's IC industry risks falling technologically

behind other countries.

Consolidation also remains a big part of Japan's chip industry. Last week,

Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric said they are merging their non-memory chip

operations. Already Hitachi's has a joint manufacturing venture with NEC for the

production of DRAMs.



Japan's latest government-backed initiative will not be open to foreign firms,
the JEITA spokesman said.

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