Elpida Memory Inc., Japan’s biggest computer memory-chip maker, said its venture with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. turned profitable in its fiscal second quarter, helped by rising prices and cost reductions. Rexchip Electronics Corp. became profitable on an operating basis in August, Elpida said in an e-mailed statement today. The Tokyo-based company, which will report its earnings for the three months ended Sept. 30 on Nov. 5, didn’t provide specific figures.

Profitability at the Taichung, Taiwan-based Rexchip was helped by a switch to 65-nanometer chip production, from 70- nanometer, Elpida’s spokesman Hiroshi Tsuboi said by telephone today. The Japanese company owns 52 percent of unlisted Rexchip and Powerchip holds 46 percent, Tsuboi said.
Elpida rose 0.8 percent to 1,144 yen as of 9:26 a.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, compared with a 0.4 percent gain by the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average. Powerchip climbed 0.3 percent in Taipei trading Thursday.
A nanometer is a billionth of a meter and measures the width of transistors in a chip, where a smaller gap means more transistors can be packed on each wafer, making the chip cheaper to make.
Prices of benchmark dynamic random access memory, which temporarily holds data and helps computer processors run multiple programs simultaneously, rose 86 percent in the quarter, according to Dramexchange Technology Inc., operator of Asia’s biggest spot market for semiconductors. The prices slumped 62 percent in 2008.
Elpida also said its Tera Probe Inc. memory-chip testing venture turned profitable on an operating basis in the period, without giving figures. Orders for chips used in smart phones and other mobile devices helped bolster orders, it said.
The Yokohama, Japan-based venture is 62 percent owned by Elpida, with the rest held by Taiwan’s Powertech Technology Inc., U.S.-based Kingston Technology Corp. and Japan’s Advantest Corp., Tsuboi said.
(Source:Bloomberg)