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     This story was printed from CdrInfo.com,

     located at http://www.cdrinfo.com.

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Elpida Memory, Inc. today announced that it has reached an agreement with Advantest, Kingston Technology and Powertech Technology on forming a new start-up company that will serve as the world's largest wafer testing service.

The new company, to be called "Tera Probe," is expected to begin operations on 1 October 2005.

Hiroshima Elpida Memory, a wholly owned subsidiary of Elpida, and other semiconductor companies will order the new company to provide wafer testing for their DRAM products.

In related news, Toshiba and Iwate Toshiba Electronics announced on July 22 that they will construct a new semiconductor production line that will process 200mm wafers, at Iwate Toshiba, Toshiba's consolidated subsidiary.

To be built at a cost of 10 billion yen ($89 mil), the new line will produce driver ICs for LCDs and power metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs).

Commercial production is slated to start in the latter half of 2005 for power MOSFETs and in 2006 for LCD driver ICs. The line will have monthly capacities of 3,750 and 5,000 wafers for LCD drivers and power MOSFETs, respectively.