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1. China antitrust investigation or delay the completion of the sale of Toshiba's memory chip business;
Set of micro-network news, following the western data and Toshiba on the memory chip business of the settlement, the Nikkei Asia Review reported that the Chinese regulator also opened a antitrust investigation of the acquisition, the completion of the acquisition is expected to be delayed for some time.
To address the financial strain of Westinghouse's 6.3 billion dollar asset writedowns, Toshiba signed an agreement with the Bain Capital Consortium on September 28 to sell its chip business unit to the latter, which is expected to be completed by March next year.
The comments point out that the deal has now been approved by the US and Japanese regulators and is subject to approval by regulators in mainland China, China's Taiwan region and South Korea. Although this week, Toshiba and the Western data finally shook hands, but still need to have shareholders and regulators in the two clearance to complete the sale of the memory chip business to the Bain Capital Consortium transactions.
In fact, earlier this month, Chinese regulators began approving the sale of Toshiba's memory chip business. In September this year, Toshiba submitted approval materials to Chinese regulators after a deal with Bain Capital and its partners was reached. The comments point out that the approval of Chinese regulators for such deals typically takes about 4 months, sometimes extending to 6 months, adding to the uncertainty about whether Toshiba will complete the deal by next March.
Toshiba is in an insolvent situation because of a serious loss in investment in the US nuclear power industry, and will face a risk of delisting if it fails to resolve its insolvency by the end of March next year. A spokesman for Toshiba's US division did not comment.
2. Toshiba WD Final Reconciliation TMC;
Toshiba (Toshiba) and the West (WD) NAND flash memory cause of the storm, from February 14, 2017 Toshiba announced its NAND flash memory cause of sale, May 14, the number of negotiations in the West did not propose international arbitration, to December 13, the two sides finally openly declared a settlement, let the incident ended, Toshiba Storage (TMC) can continue to prepare for sale. The Japanese economic News (Nikkei) website reports that the cause of the incident is actually the misunderstanding of the Western CEO, Stephen Milligan. Toshiba and New (SanDisk) Cooperation negotiations, began in 1999, with Toshiba Capital 51%, the new di 49% of the proportion of construction Srs plant, Stephen Milligan see the proportion of the contribution of the two sides is a reciprocal relationship, so after the acquisition of the new emperor, to inspect the Srs factory, According to the Nikkei, said Toshiba officials, but also for the factory does not have the new Emperor trademark and unhappy. In fact, in the Srs factory, Toshiba's staff of 6,200 people, the new emperor only 700 people, the two sides are only reflected in the production of semiconductor distribution of the right, the land personnel and factory operations, are unilaterally arranged by Toshiba, if the two sides breaking, Toshiba as long as the funds, so can also operate the development Srs factory, The manpower of the New and the West is far from enough, so Toshiba only regards the West number as the investor. Toshiba was forced to sell the NAND flash memory cause when it was insolvent because of the nuclear power cause, and the 2 trillion yen (about $17.8 billion) was priced to pay off the debt, in fact, the cause of the value should be higher; So the 1.3 trillion yen price for the west, even if Toshiba is willing to compromise, the banking group will not let go, which is doomed to confrontation. When the West is proposing international arbitration, the situation at first glance seems to favour the West, as Toshiba has time pressure to complete the deal before the end of March 2018; But in terms of the West, they also have a time limit, because the latest 3D NAND flash memory investment has just begun, the west at this time against Toshiba, which means unable to participate in the 3D NAND flash memory investment and production, the future can not be allocated to the latest technology products. The main drive of the west, the market gradually by NAND flash memory-related SSDs and other products eroded, for the west, they need NAND flash memory, in order to maintain the status of the storage equipment market, or even the existence of the company, when the loss of the latest technology products, the company a considerable blow. Moreover, the cooperation between the West and Toshiba, will be due from 2021 onwards, international arbitration estimates will be 2019-2020 years before the conclusion, regardless of the conclusion, the West and Toshiba cooperation can be said to end, the number of new Dili is not enough to operate the new NAND flash memory production line, can say that there is no chance of success. As a result, the two sides are now settling and extending the time limit of cooperation to 2027-2029 years, which is, to say the least, not lost. But it is still hard to be optimistic about how to counter Samsung Electronics, which continues to expand the market share of NAND flash memory over this period. Digitimes
3. Research: 2017 DRAM market sales growth of 74% to 72 billion U.S. dollars;
Set of micro-network message (compilation/Danyang) in 2017, as data centers, servers, smartphones and other mobile products increased DRAM demand, DRAM capacity was in short supply and average selling prices continued to rise. As shown in Figure 1, IC Insights expects DRAM sales to be up to 21.1 billion U.S. dollars in the fourth quarter of 2017, with a 65% increase from 12.8 billion US dollars in the fourth quarter of 2016.
IC Insights expects 2017 annual DRAM sales to reach $72 billion trillion and an annual growth rate of 74%. This is from 1993 (annual growth rate of 1994 is 78%) The best record in history, at the same time as the average annual growth rate of 13% in 1993-2017 is 61%, which is the fourth time since 1993 sales of more than 50%, the last annual growth rate of 67% to date back to 2010.
To sum up, IC Insights pointed out that the DRAM growth rate is close to the historical highs because: ① main wafer plant expansion plan, not keep pace with the market demand for short supply; ②≤20nm Advanced process products still exist good rate problem; Demand for high-performance (graphics) DRAM is increasing in markets such as ③ gaming systems and data centers; ④ each smartphone's dram capacity is increasing.
We see virtual reality and augmented reality, and artificial intelligence will be the breakthrough point for smartphones in the next round of applications, and DRAM capacity in high-end smartphones is likely to continue to increase. At the same time, in some developing countries, the transition from a functional machine to an intelligent machine will also increase DRAM from no pick-up to 1GB capacity.
From a historical perspective, DRAM cannot go up in the end, the next 1-2 years with rising prices and capacity expansion, DRAM annual growth rate is likely to fall again. The announcement from Samsung and SK in the second half of 2017 shows that with new capacity coming out, it will ease the upward trend in the average price of DRAM. Samsung will reach an unprecedented 26 billion dollars in semiconductor capital in 2017, and SK Rexroth is planning to add a new production line in Wuxi. Recently, the United States light and Intel announced that its IM Flash B60 wafer plant expansion work has been completed, the future mainly responsible for 3D xpoint memory production, but the actual production has a period of time.
4. Yaco: Next year DRAM market is stable, Q1 supply is still tight;
The DRAM market grew strongly this year, with South Asia Technology (2408) expected to continue to be tight in the fourth quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018, with a robust average dram sales price; Outlook 2018, the overall DRAM market is expected to be balanced and healthy next year, the market will remain stable.
With applications such as artificial intelligence, Internet of things, smart cars, high-speed computing, and more diversified development of the semiconductor industry, DRAM has become a key component of electronic products, driving the memory market to grow by more than 50% this year.
Looking forward to 2018, Yaco expected DRAM capital expenditure is mainly used for advanced process conversion and maintenance of the original monthly capacity, DRAM growth rate in 20%~25%, estimated 2018 demand will be more than 2017 growth of 23%, expected in the 2018 DRAM market will continue to maintain a steady trend.
2017 Global Semiconductor market is expected to grow by 20%, the scale of 411.1 billion U.S. dollars, memory market growth of up to 57%, the scale of 126 billion U.S. dollars, 2017 memory market revenue accounted for the semiconductor market 31%.
The memory market in 2017 exceeded the scale of 120 billion U.S. dollars, estimated 2017 dram market growth rate of 67%, output value of 68.5 billion U.S. dollars, estimated 2017 NAND flash market growth rate of 51%, output value of 53.5 billion U.S. dollars, DRAM plus NAND accounted for the memory market value of 97%.
In view of the memory industrial capital expenditure, it continues to significantly increase the demand for 3D NAND capacity, in contrast, the DRAM capital expenditure is mainly used for advanced process conversion and maintain the original monthly energy; Yaco estimated that 2018 dram growth rate of 20%~25%, 2018 years will be the second half of the new DRAM capacity input volume production, NAND-bit annual growth rate is up to 40%~45%; Estimated 2018 global DRAM average monthly capacity will be increased from 2017 1.133 million micro-range to 2018 1.21 million, expected in 2018 DRAM market supply and demand is balanced and healthy. Business Times
5. Western Data 96 layer 3D NAND has started delivery, accelerate 2D3D production line conversion
After the Western data (Western Digital) and the Japanese semiconductor giant Toshiba (Toshiba) to sell the semiconductor sector, giving Bain Capital (Bain) led by the U.S.-Japan-South Korea alliance to reach a settlement, the recent Western data meeting, Discuss the details of the agreements on cooperation with Toshiba. In addition, a production plan for NAND flash memory was proposed and a 96-tiered 3D NAND flash memory was announced to be delivered to retailer sales.
At the meeting, the Western data reported the production status of the NAND flash memory using BICS3 and BiCS4. Because of the 3D NAND flash memory produced by BICS3 technology, the maximum stacking number can only be up to 64 layers, while the 3D NAND flash memory produced by BICS4 technology can reach 96-tier stacking with a full capacity increase of 50%, displaying more storage within the unit area, so Get the attention of the family members.
In fact, before the western data had set a goal, the 2017 using BICS3 technology production of 64-layer 3D NAND flash memory, to account for the Western data 3D NAND flash memory total output of 75%. Now, however, that figure is expected to rise above 90%. Only, the flash memory type of Western data is not completely converted from 2D to NAND, now the output of 3D NAND flash memory accounts for only 65% of the total Western data. In other words, 1/3 of all flash memory produced by Western data is 2D NAND flash memory.
In addition, 12th this month, the Western data also announced the adoption of the BICS4 technology of the 96-layer 3D NAND flash memory has been shipped to the retailer. Moreover, not only is the current TLC mainstream type available, but it also provides more advanced QLC types. Although the TLC type does not differ from the QLC type 3D NAND flash memory in use, it provides higher reliability and performance. The Western data shipped to retailers, using the BICS4 technology of the 96-tier 3D NAND flash memory, regardless of the TLC type or QLC type contains 256Gb and 512Gb two specifications, but the use of BICS4 technology QLC memory can also have 768Gb or even 1Tb of the two Specifications.
Western data indicate that the switch from 2D to 3D NAND process is very cumbersome, and they also believe that the program's execution time is delayed by about 6 months. However, the prospect of a total shift from 2D NAND flash memory to 3D flash memory will not take too long. This is more in line with the operational benefits of the western data, and to cope with the current shortage of 3D NAND flash memory market demand. Technews