Spansion has reached a level of more than 25,000 wafer-starts per quarter at its Spansion 1 (SP1) facility in Japan, the world's first 300mm, 65nm MirrorBit technology Flash memory manufacturing fab. A number of Spansion's top customers are already in the process of qualifying products at SP1, including 65nm products, such as MirrorBit Eclipse devices.

"This is a significant milestone for the Flash memory industry and we expect it will provide important benefits for our overall business," said Bertrand Cambou, president and CEO, Spansion. "With this leading-edge facility, and the cost and technology advantages of MirrorBit technology, we are delivering on our promise to bring more value to our customers and stockholders. We expect that this production ramp should rapidly reduce our reliance on external foundries and older technology nodes, giving Spansion greater capacity with attractive cost structures for our target segments."

Spansion is the first company to produce next-generation NOR Flash memory technology on 300mm wafers. A 300mm fab usually gives about a 30 percent cost reduction over 200mm, according to Jim Handy, a principal analyst with Objective Analysis.

Plans for SP1 include an aggressive migration plan to 45nm next year.