Elpida said it is going to manufacture more advanced NAND flash chips by using the technology called MirrorBit charge-trapping technology which it has licensed from Spansion. Elpida is using its 300mm Hiroshima semiconductor wafer fab for making these memory chips.

Elpida and Spansion are in for a deeper relationship to share each other's resources to make both NAND as well as NOR flash memory chips. Elpida with its advanced semiconductor fabs and Spansion with its top-notch flash memory related semiconductor IP expertise complement each other's requirements to compete with Korean and Taiwanese Memory chip makers.

"The alliance with Spansion and the licensing of Spansion NAND IP enable Elpida to develop advanced NAND products which, when combined with our leading DRAM products, allows us to better service markets including cellular handsets and digital consumer," said Yukio Sakamoto, president and chief executive officer of Elpida. "Spansion has developed a very flexible, scalable Flash technology with its MirrorBit charge-trapping technology. We're excited about joint NAND development and the potential for further collaboration in NOR Flash memory."

"Collaborating with Elpida furthers Spansion's strategy," said John Kispert, president and CEO, Spansion. "The joint NAND development activity and foundry agreement allows Spansion to efficiently expand its product offerings and bring additional value to our customers."