Toshiba may spin off NAND flash unit and if WD scoops it up, it will surpass Samsung

Sometimes one division in a company can drag down others - that’s what is happening at Toshiba, where the NAND flash business is booming, but the conglomerate faces a multi-billion dollar write-down over issues with the Westinghouse nuclear power plant.
Analysts at Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities say Toshiba leadership is considering spinning off the memory business as soon as possible (by the end of March) and Western Digital is reportedly the frontrunner to scoop up a 20% stake. WD (which acquired SanDisk recently) is currently third in the global NAND flash market (with a 17.1% share) after Samsung (36.6%) and Toshiba (19.8%).
However, WD and Toshiba combined would surpass Samsung’s market share, putting the new company in the lead. Make no mistake, Samsung’s memory business is a big part of how the company posted better than expected Q4 results even after it lost billions on the failed Note7.
SK Hynix, known for its RAM chips (used in both computers and phones) is currently fifth in the marketplace and is the other company reported to have interest in Toshiba’s NAND business. The two companies have worked together before to develop Nanoimprint lithography.
Toshiba is also set to transition to 64-layer 3D NAND in the first half of this year. The current process stacks only 48 layers, so we’re due for an increase in capacity. Samsung is also just switching from 48 to 64 layers for its NAND chips.
Source | Via

Comments

Post a Comment

Kindly Comment Only related to Post

Popular posts from this blog

Microsoft releases Hub Keyboard for Android

Image
Microsoft has made yet another app for Android, this time a keyboard. The Microsoft Hub Keyboard looks like a simple keyboard at first but it has a few tricks up its sleeve. The keyboard has four main features. The clipboard feature shows you text you had previously copied so you can paste it with a couple of taps. The documents feature lets you login to your Office 365 account and paste the URL of the files by typing their names. The contacts feature lets you type the name of the contact and paste their details by tapping on the suggestions above. Lastly, there is a built-in translator, which can translate the text you're typing to any other language. That aside, the keyboard is extremely basic and does not even have autocorrect, which makes typing extremely difficult. There also doesn't seem to be any way to access emoji if you're using this keyboard. Some of these drawbacks makes the keyboard hard to use for basic typing and the addition of the
Read more

Galaxy A9 Pro international variant is now Bluetooth certified

Image
The Samsung SM-A910F - which is alleged to be the international variant of the Galaxy A9 Pro (SM-A9100) - has now received certification from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), indicating an imminent launch. This comes just a few weeks after the handset (both standard and dual-SIM models) received Wi-Fi certification from the WiFi Alliance (WFA). Prior to that, the phone was spotted on India's import/export tracking website Zauba. Sadly, pricing and availability details of the Samsung SM-A910F aren't yet known. Also not known are the markets that'll get it, although Europe seems to be on list as a polish retailer has reportedly already started accepting pre-orders for the device. Via
Read more

Surgeon Simulator’ for iPad game review

Image
Surgeon Simulator for iPad is a port of the popular game that was released on Steam last year. Although the game claims to be a simulator, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The game had you performing hilarious operations on an unsuspecting patient in ways that would send an actual surgeon or patient reeling in horror. Now the same game has been ported over completely to the iPad, which is the only platform right now other than the desktop PC to have the game. We picked up our scalpel and decided to get our hands dirty before Bob’s anesthesia wore off. Gameplay Surgeon Simulator is a pseudo-simulator, which means it is not really trying to be accurate. In fact, it deliberately make the whole process of performing surgery on someone as inaccurate and hilarious as possible. A good example of this is the heart transplant you have to start off with. You cut Bob’s ribs off completely, and then throw them away. Then you also cut and discard his esophagus, stoma
Read more

Genuine leather backs for Microsoft Lumia 950 and 950 XL from Mozo

Image
You may have missed it yesterday because it wasn’t shown off on stage, but apparently the new Lumia 950 and 950 XL flagships will be easily customizable with back covers. Finnish accessory maker Mozo already has an interesting lineup of back that include genuine leather. They replace the existing back case on the phones and fully support Qi wireless charging and NFC. They are not cheap though, €48/£40-€60/£50 is what you're looking at. Mozo cases: a choice between genuine leather or rubberized coating We saw some of the cases at the event yesterday too: Source
Read more

iPhone SE teardown shows hardware ranging from iPhone 5 to 6s

Image
The Apple iPhone SE is a 6s in a 5s body, but Chipworks dug into the internals and it turns out the story is more complicated than that. It straddles multiple generations - from the iPhone 5 selfie camera to the iPhone 6s chipset, a whopping four generations. The Apple A9 chipset is brand new and the SK Hynix-made LPDDR4 2GB memory matches the 6s as well. The NFC, audio chips and motion sensor are from that generation as well. The storage appears to be from the 6s as well, but an earlier 19nm chip instead of the 15nm being shipped now. The Qualcomm modem from the earlier iPhone 6 model while the touchscreen controller goes back to the iPhone 5s. Using the images and info from Chipworks, I labeled the parts on the motherboard with the iPhone generation they come from. Source | Via
Read more