IBM Increases Production of Vital 4-Megabit Memory Chips

International Business Machines Corp. on Monday stepped up production here of a new four-megabit memory chip critical to the development of the computer giant’s most sophisticated products.

The Sindelfingen plant, about 15 miles west of Stuttgart, is only the second plant in the world that will mass produce the complex semiconductors for IBM.

Production-line manufacturing began in Burlington, Vt., “a few months ago,” and another IBM manufacturing plant is scheduled to open in Yasu, Japan, later this year, according to Peter W. Thonis, a spokesman at IBM’s Armonk, N.Y., headquarters.

‘Leadership Position’

It had been widely assumed that Japan was leading in the battle to gain early dominance in production of the four-megabit chip, but industry analysts and IBM note that the U.S. company has been producing the chip in volume for the past few months.

“We have leadership position,” Thonis said.

The four-megabit chip, which can store 4 million bits of information, or about 200 typewritten pages, is considered a vital element of virtually all of the advanced consumer-product and defense technology of tomorrow.

“Production of this four-megabit computer chip signals without a doubt a powerful new phase (in computer) development,” said West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who attended the Sindelfingen plant opening.

According to Helmut Roeder, a Stuttgart-based IBM spokesman, the company succeeded in producing the first four-megabit memory chip from a 200-millimeter silicon wafer. He said the new chip will allow increased computer memory while keeping down costs.

“This can be used for all types of computers,” he said. “With a larger wafer, it is cheaper and you have a much higher production output. The objective was to reduce the cost of memory.”

Sensitive Procedures

Roeder did not say precisely what kind of savings could be expected from production of the new chip, but he noted that IBM would not be selling the new chip to other computer producers.

“We are planning to use this new chip generation in our own products,” he said.

Other companies have been unable to produce a four-megabit chip from larger silicon wafers because of the sensitive production procedures required, Roeder said.

As it is, he said, it will take about eight weeks before the first chip of this nature is completed at the Sindelfingen plant.

“This process is very difficult. No one else has been in the position to handle it correctly and economically,” he said. “There are so many processes, so many control mechanisms to make sure each step is correct. That’s why it takes two months.”