Spansion Signs Foundry Agreement with SMIC to Produce 300mm, 65nm MirrorBit(R) Products
October 23 2007 - 9:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
Preliminary MOU Signed for SMIC to Manufacture and Sell MirrorBit
Quad Solutions in China BEIJING and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 23
/Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Spansion Inc. (NASDAQ:SPSN), the world's
largest pure-play provider of Flash memory solutions, today
announced that it has intensified its focus in the China market by
partnering with foundry leader, Semiconductor Manufacturing
International Corporation ("SMIC", NYSE: SMI and SEHK: 0981.HK).
Spansion will transfer its 65nm MirrorBit(R) technology to SMIC for
foundry services on 300mm wafers in China. SMIC and Spansion have
also signed a preliminary memorandum of understanding which would
allow SMIC to enter selected segments of the Flash memory market
with a license to manufacture and sell 90nm and 65nm and
potentially future Spansion MirrorBit(R) Quad products for the
China content delivery market. Spansion has been investing in China
for over 10 years and is now a leading Flash memory provider to the
top consumer electronics and wireless OEMs in the region. The
investment started with the establishment by AMD, Spansion's former
parent company, of the Suzhou final manufacturing facility - now
one of the world's largest producers of memory Multi-chip Packages
(MCPs). Since then, Spansion has added local design centers in
Suzhou and Beijing, and sales and marketing offices in Beijing,
Shanghai and Shenzhen. Through the foundry agreement with SMIC,
Spansion will have wafer manufacturing capabilities in China. "By
partnering with SMIC, a leading foundry in China, we can better
serve our customers, with products made in China for the China
market," said Bertrand Cambou, president and CEO of Spansion Inc.
"As a result of our team's success, we have the opportunity to take
our business to the next level and expand opportunities in this
exploding region." As the market leader in China, SMIC provides a
complete integrated circuit foundry solution to help its customers
fulfill their China Strategy. SMIC has diversified its memory
portfolio to include NAND Flash, NOR Flash, and Specialty DRAM as
part of its growth strategy to enter potential market segments.
SMIC has also announced development of 90nm 2Gb NAND Flash and 2Gb-
TSOP products based on Saifun 2-bit-per-cell as well as the Quad
NROM four- bit-per-cell technology, scheduled to enter commercial
production as early as the fourth quarter, 2007. "As Spansion has
made strategic plans for the China market, SMIC has made great
strides anticipating the growing Flash memory market. Our
partnership with the NOR Flash memory technology leader fortifies
these strategic synergies," said Dr. Richard Chang, president and
CEO of SMIC. "With the booming China consumer electronics market
comes the opportunity to create and nurture the growth of various
Flash memory services and markets. We look forward to collaborating
with Spansion to manufacture its leading-edge MirrorBit technology
and develop Flash-based content delivery applications." Spansion in
China Spansion has more than 1,300 employees in Greater China who
continue to build momentum with the top OEMs, as demonstrated by
the awards Spansion has received. For the third consecutive year,
Lenovo awarded Spansion Best Supplier for 2006 and Inventec, a
leading ODM/OEM awarded Spansion Best Partner earlier this year.
Spansion's other leading partners in the Greater China region
include ARCA Technology Corporation and MediaTek, Inc., one of the
world's top ten fabless semiconductor companies for wireless
communications and digital media solutions. Spansion has a final
manufacturing facility in Suzhou, one of the world's largest memory
producers of Multi-chip Packages (MCPs), design centers in Suzhou
and Beijing and sales and marketing offices in Beijing, Shanghai
and Shenzhen. About Spansion Spansion is a leading Flash memory
solutions provider, dedicated to enabling, storing and protecting
digital content in wireless, automotive, networking and consumer
electronics applications. Spansion, previously a joint venture of
AMD and Fujitsu, is the largest company in the world dedicated
exclusively to designing, developing, manufacturing, marketing and
selling Flash memory solutions. For more information, visit
http://www.spansion.com/. About SMIC Semiconductor Manufacturing
International Corporation ("SMIC"; NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 0981.HK) is one
of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world and the largest
and most advanced foundry in Mainland China, providing integrated
circuit (IC) manufacturing service at 0.35um to 90nm and finer line
technologies. Headquartered in Shanghai, China, SMIC has a 300mm
wafer fabrication facility (fab) under pilot production and three
200mm wafer fabs in its Shanghai mega-fab, two 300mm wafer fabs in
its Beijing mega-fab, a 200mm wafer fab in Tianjin, and an in-house
assembly and testing facility in Chengdu. SMIC also has customer
service and marketing offices in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and a
representative office in Hong Kong. In addition, SMIC manages and
operates a 200mm wafer fab in Chengdu owned by Cension
Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation and a 300mm wafer fab under
construction in Wuhan owned by Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor
Manufacturing Corporation. For more information, please visit
http://www.smics.com/ Spansion(R), the Spansion logo, MirrorBit(R),
MirrorBit(R) Eclipse(TM), ORNAND(TM), HD-SIM(TM) and combinations
thereof, are trademarks of Spansion LLC in the U.S. and other
countries. Other names used are for informational purposes only and
may be trademarks of their respective owners. Safe Harbor
Statements for SMIC (Under the U.S. Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995) Information provided in this press release may
contain statements relating to current expectations, estimates,
forecasts and projections about future events that are
"forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements
generally relate to the company's plans, objectives and
expectations for future operations and are based upon management's
current estimates and projections of future results or trends.
Actual future results may differ materially from those projected as
a result of certain risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of
such risks and uncertainties, see "Risk Factors" in the company's
Annual Report on Form 20-F filed on June 29, 2007 with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking
statements are made only as of the date hereof, and we undertake no
obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
For more information, please contact: Joy Wu Spansion China Phone:
+86-10-1391-0591-789 Michele Landry Spansion Inc Phone:
+1-408-616-1170 SMIC Reiko Chang Corporate Relations Phone:
+86-21-5080-2000 ext. 10544 Email: DATASOURCE: Semiconductor
Manufacturing International Corporation CONTACT: Joy Wu of Spansion
China at +86-10-1391-0591-789, or Michele Landry of Spansion Inc at
+1-408-616-1170, or Reiko Chang, Corporate Relations of SMIC at
+86-21-5080-2000 ext. 10544 or Web site: http://www.smics.com/
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