New chip means even smaller gadgets

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s top memory chipmaker, yesterday unveiled what it says is the world’s first 10-chip multi-chip package that promises to make portable devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras and game consoles even smaller. According to Samsung, the new package is composed of two 4-gigabyte NAND flash memory chips, four 512-megabyte dynamic random access memory chips and four 256-megabyte NOR flash memory chips. Samsung Electronics developed the world’s first six-chip multi-chip package in 2003 and an eight-chip package earlier this year. According to iSuppli Corp., a U.S.-based market researcher, the global multi-chip package market has reached $4.9 billion this year, up $700 million from 2004, and is expected to rise to $7.6 billion by 2008. Last year Samsung Electronics beat U.S.-based Intel to take first place in the global multi-chip package market, with a 26 percent market share. Samsung holds the top ranking again this year. by Lee Chul-jae