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Toshiba and NEC in 32n chip pact
R&D
Toshiba and NEC have decided to jointly develop 32-nanometre chips to better keep up with rivals. The move is seen to counter the R&D budgets of bigger chip makers Samsung, IBM, CSM, Infineon, STMicroelectronics and Freescale Semiconductor have said they would work through 2010 to develop and produce 32-nanometre chips.
However the Japanese chip makers have yet to work out how to share the estimated 100-200 billion yen development costs to make the leap to the next generation of chips. The two plan to mass produce 45-nanometre or 40-nanometre chips by early 2009, had also approached Fujitsu to join the alliance.
As yet Fujitsu is undecided.