Qimonda AG American Depositary Shares (fka QMNDQ)

[Olmec]

Texas Instruments wants to buy Qimonda manufacturing plants.

Texas Instruments (TI) delivered with the court, which cares for the insolvency of the US section of Qimonda, a requirement at a value of 172.5 million US Dollar for devices and plants for semiconductor production from the shut down work with Richmond/Virginia. The machines could be used in that world-wide first chip Fab to the production of similar to ICs on 300-Millimeter-Wafern; the building of these RFAB stands already since May 2006 in Richardson, for a suburb of Dallas/Texas, the TI-head office. However TI installed still no plants, among other things because the economic prospects for it were bad - that is not uncommon in the industry. After the information from Semiconductor international should originally manufacture the 2003 planned RFAB digital ICs; in the last year it is then admits become that TI dear analog circuitries wants to produce. TI had also announced 2007 to only develop 45-Nanometer-Fertigungsprozess a particularly economical (Low power) and none for High end processors suitable finishing technique to more; therefore Sun for coming UltraSPARC processors a new manufacturing partner had to look for each other. Because the used plants from the Qimonda work are cheaper in the place sand clay/tone than new, it could be worthwhile itself to manufacture similar to ICs on 300-Millimeter-Wafer. That was obviously evaluated so far of the manufacturers as uneconomic; many similar to ICs are smaller than DRAM chips with several billions transistors. The Qimonda work in Virginia had been built starting from 1996 as White Oak Semiconductor, at that time in the context of the Joint venture between Siemens semiconductor (today Infineon) and Motorola (today Freescale). In view of increasing liquidity problems Qimonda had already sold and had back-rented end 2007 older (200-mm) manufacturing plants at the Spezialdienstleister Macquarie. For April the real estate specialist of collier international tries to sell the Fab completely or in parts in order to be able to serve commitments of Qimonda. In the chip industry it occurs that already finished buildings in financially uncertain times are longer not used, and that one can further-use an older finishing technique by the favorable purchase of used plants economically meaningfully. The US firm Micron supplies examples of both: The 300-mm-Fab in Lehi/Utah, developed starting from 1995/96, was 2000 finished, stood however up to different test production lines to a large extent empty. Only at the end of of 2005, with the establishment of the Intel Micron Joint venture IN the Flash, was correctly used Lehi. In addition Micron 1998 bought the DRAM section of Texas Instruments with several Fabs, for instance in Avezzano/Italy, and 2002 the Dominion Fab of Toshiba in Manassas/Virginia. (ciw/c' t)