P.M. BRIEFING : IBM-German Chip Collaboration

IBM and Siemens AG, the German electronics giant, today announced an agreement to jointly develop a new generation of computer memory chips.

Under the agreement, the two companies will work on developing a 64-million-bit dynamic random access memory chip, or DRAM.

By contrast, the largest-capacity chip on the market holds 4 million bits of information. That chip was first introduced commercially by International Business Machines Corp. last year. IBM and Siemens also have independent efforts under way to develop 16-million-bit chips.

Development of the 64-million-bit chip will take place at IBM’s East Fishkill, N.Y., semiconductor center and will use the resources of IBM’s Essex Junction, Vt., facility and Siemens’ Munich facility, the companies said in a statement.

IBM, the world’s largest chip producer, uses all the chips it makes in its own products.