ATI to order more from TSMC and UMC. Photos of Radeon 9800/Radeon 9200
Addonics announces 7 new Serial ATA solutions
LSI Logic ships 2-port MegaRAID Serial ATA 150-2 RAID controller
Global DRAM shipments grew by 6% in March
Intel launches 0.13µm Flash production
ATI to order more from TSMC and UMC. Photos of Radeon 9800/Radeon 9200
ATI Technologies yesterday’s official declaration about moving Radeon 9800 (R350) to April from the Summer was backed by some other interesting news from other sources. So, according to The DigiTimes, company’s CEO in over-the-phone interview declared that ATI plans to considerable increase chip production orders from its partners, TSMC and UMC, instead of searching for any new production partners.
As you know ATI orders all 0.13µm chips as well as most of 0.15µm ones from TSMC, though, according to some sources, some 0.15µm RV280 chips have been ordered from UMC. Besides, 0.13µm Radeon 9600 (RV350) will be produced at TSMC’s 300mm fab. And UMC produces 0.15µm ATI Radeon 9200 (RV280), which are also to be moved to 0.13µm process technology in the future. Finally, ATI doesn’t plan to make 90nm chips until at least 2004.
Meanwhile, yesterday in Japan ATI "locally" announced a number of "new" products, which have been actually released before: RADEON 9800 PRO, RADEON 9600/PRO, RADEON 9200/PRO, MOBILITY RADEON 9600/9200, MOBILITY RADEON 7000 IGP chipset. We mention it because this event brought the whole lot of graphics cards (click photos to enlarge):
C.P.Technologies, RADEON 9800
PRO | 
Info-Tek (GIGACUBE), RADEON 9800 PRO |
GIGABYTE, RADEON 9800 PRO | 
Info-Tek, RADEON 9200 |
YUAN, RADEON 9200 | 
FIC, RADEON 9200 |
GIGABYTE, RADEON 9200 | 
TYAN, RADEON 9200 |
Source: PC Watch
Addonics announces 7 new Serial ATA solutions
Addonics Technologies announced shipments of its Serial ATA 150 product line including host controllers, IDE/ATAPI adapters, external drive kits, RAID solutions.
7 novelties are the first to arrive to retail markets:
- IDE to Serial ATA Converter (ADIDESA) — $35
- 2-port Serial ATA PCI Host Controller — $39
- External Serial ATA Upgrade Kit (AKBSA) — $59
- Combo External Serial ATA Upgrade Kit (AKCOMSA) — $89
- Serial ATA Combo Hard Drive (AEMED35SA) — $115
- Serial ATA Removable Combo Hard Drive (AERHD35SA) — $105
- Combo RAID System (AERAID35SA) — $169
External Serial ATA Upgrade Kit is a PCI controller providing an external Serial ATA port to a system. Likewise, Addonics Combo External Serial ATA Upgrade Kit provides internal Serial ATA ports.
With Addonics Serial ATA Combo Hard Drive or Serial ATA Removable Combo Hard Drive Kit one can transform a usual 3.5" IDE drive into an external Serial ATA solution or a part of a RAID array. Serial ATA Combo Hard Drive includes Combo Hard Drive Enclosure, Combo Hard Drive Desktop Drive Cradle and 110/220V power supply; Serial ATA Removable Combo Hard Drive features Addonics IDE-Serial ATA converter, Serial ATA PCI controller, enclosure and Desktop Drive Cradle.
Addonics IDE-Serial ATA converter is designed for connecting IDE/ATAPI devices like HDDs, DVD-RW, CDRW, DVD-ROMs to a Serial ATA interface. Combined, Addonics IDE-Serial ATA and Addonics Combo HD Drive or Pocket ExDrive Drive provide "hot swap" to any IDE hard disk. Besides, Addonics Serial ATA PCI controller supports RAID 0/1.
Addonics Serial ATA PCI Host Controller adds 2 Serial ATA ports to a system. Addonics Combo RAID System that features two IDE-Serial ATA adapters, Serial ATA PCI controller with RAID Level 0/1 support, two Combo Hard Drive enclosures and two Combo Hard Drive Desktop Drive Cradles, provides a simple Serial ATA RAID combo.
LSI Logic ships 2-port MegaRAID Serial ATA 150-2 RAID controller
LSI Logic announced volume production of MegaRAID Serial ATA 150-2 RAID controllers.
These are based on Sil 3112A SATA chips, feature 2 SATA 150 ports, support 32-bit/66MHz bus (PCI 2.2) and designed primarily for desktops, workstations and entry-level servers. MegaRAID Serial ATA 150-2 are packed into low-profile PCI (MD2) casing, support RAID 0, 1, 48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA) for over 137Gb drives.
As shipments of this new controller have already started, in retail MegaRAID Serial ATA 150-2 is expected late in April.
Global DRAM shipments grew by 6% in March
According to The Digitimes , referring to DRAMeXchange, global DRAM production grew by 6.05% in March to 226.89 million conventional chips (256Mbit). Main reasons for this were more workdays (comparing to the previous month), increased wafer purchases, etc. Besides, while moving to 0.13µm and 0.14µm process technologies, makers reported about production improvements.
Last month about 18-20% of all DRAM chips were made in Taiwan. This is mostly related to increased purchases of 12" wafers by Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation’s (PSC) that made about 12,000 in March. Production volumes growth in Germany and USA made 12.59% and 4.53%, respectively. As for the former, growth was the result of increased wafer purchases by Infineon Technologies.
The only country reducing production volumes is Japan with 14.10% reduction in March as a result of Mitsubishi Electric´s departure from the DRAM market.
Source: The DigiTimes
Intel launches 0.13µm Flash production
Intel informed on launching 0.13µm Flash production at its Irish fab. The company spent about $200 million to modernize this facility.
Currently employing about 3200 workers there, Intel intends to hire more workforce despite the staff cut trend that started last year.
Source: Silicon Strategies
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