[Korea.net News, Science / Tech, January 24 2008] Samsung, Hynix to join hands in chip R&D

The world’s two largest memory chip manufacturers agreed to join hands to develop next-generation semiconductors to enable Korea to stay ahead of rivals in this critical industry, the government said Thursday (Jan. 24).

Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor said they will jointly invest 9 billion won in a broader state-supported research and development (R&D) program to acquire the necessary technologies to make future memory chips, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said.

Under the three-stage plan that began in 2004 and runs until July 2011, a total of 52.58 billion won will be spent so that Korea will be able to design and build such futuristic chips as spin torque transfer magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) and various non-volatile memory devices.