IBM, Toshiba, Siemens form venture to develop DRAMs for next century

IBM, Toshiba Corp and Siemens AG enter into a cooperative agreement to jointly develop 256-Mbit dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips. DRAMs currently on the market have a capacity of only 16M-bits, and an intermediate generation of 64-Mbit DRAMs is expected to enter production by 1995. The product development venture will cost $1 billion or more, and the three companies are working together to reduce individual costs. While the companies will cooperate on research and development, they do not plan to jointly manufacture the chips. IBM's East Fishkill, NY semiconductor facility will be the center for DRAM development. The agreement marks a departure for IBM, which has historically developed and produced microprocessors for its exclusive use. IBM has previously worked with Siemens to 16-Mbit chips, and Siemens has previously licensed memory technology to Toshiba.