Q: A very rare feat, Phison Electronics experienced continuous sequential revenue growth throughout 2009. And with strong orders coming in, the company is reportedly on track to have a prosperous Q1 2010. What do you attribute Phison's success to?

A: Phison achieved record revenue in 2009, and we are optimistic about Q1 2010 as the company continues to prosper with the growing momentum of NAND Flash. Phison's success is attributed to the uniqueness of the company; there is no other company in the industry with our business model. We are not simply a module house or fabless company—we act as both. Phison is a NAND Flash solution provider that supports brand name companies. With our advanced controller technologies and system integration expertise, we provide competitive products to our customers that allow them to focus on managing their brands and not worry about technical issues. Our customers view Phison as their research and development (R&D) center, manufacturing site as well as industrial designer. Moreover, Phison customers greatly benefit from our partnership with upstream Flash vendors; they never have to worry about NAND Flash supply shortages. A stable supply is guaranteed in this dynamic industry.

Q: Phison recently announced that it will make an advance payment of $50 million for NAND Flash chips, conveying that the company anticipates growth in the NAND industry. What markets do you see driving the growth of this sector?

A: As I discussed earlier, NAND Flash is a fast-growing market. In the past five years, the NAND Flash market grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16 percent. We expect this growth to continue at the same speed in coming years due to the emergence of portable devices. We believe this market is still young, and there will be an increasing number of portable device applications surfacing in the future. Currently, 70 percent of NAND chips are consumed in consumer markets (e.g., mobile phones, digital still cameras and MP3 players), and volume is still growing. We see NAND adoption in systems picking up as well. Solid-state drives (SSDs) and embedded memory in mobile phones are the killer applications today.

read more

Q: As Europe's chip industry strives to achieve profitability, many European companies are implementing fab-lite models, consolidating and exiting the memory sector. As a European-based memory integrated device manufacturer (IDM), what has given Numonyx the rare competitive edge to remain successful in the devastated memory market?

A: Numonyx's competitive edge is due to the company's strong, unwavering market and technology leadership in today's memory industry. We are currently one of the top non-volatile memory (NVM) companies in the world and the number one supplier of NOR solutions for wireless and embedded applications. Our NOR market share has experienced remarkable growth, increasing 4 percent quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) in Q3 2009, while the number two supplier's share decreased 6 percent QoQ. In NOR's two focused segments, wireless and embedded, Numonyx is currently the number one and number two leader, respectively.

Q: In 2009, various analysts proclaimed the memory business model broken and advised memory companies to consolidate. However, in Q3 2009, the memory sector saw companies such as Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor report double digit growth. Do you see this positive trend continuing, or is consolidation still critical? As a company that was created by two semiconductor powerhouses, Intel and STMicroelectronics, how do you feel this combination of key memory technologies has benefited Numonyx's customers?

A: I would expect that the impressive financials of Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor are a result of the economy slowly recovering and the recent widespread consolidation. Numonyx experienced double-digit QoQ growth as well in Q3 2009, so we're quite pleased with our results. With that said, I certainly believe that further consolidation within the industry is still needed.

When customers select memory suppliers in today's industry, they are drawn to companies that deliver multiple technologies and invest in revolutionary solutions that will provide them value in the future. Through the combination of Intel's and STMicroelectronics' memory businesses, Numonyx is able to provide customers both of these benefits. The company offers customers a one-stop shop for all their memory solutions (i.e., NOR, NAND, random access memory (RAM) and phase-change memory (PCM)). Furthermore, the teaming of two prominent semiconductor leaders gives Numonyx customers confidence in the supply and product longevity of these technologies.

Regarding investment in innovation, Numonyx has put remarkable effort into the research and development of PCM, a breakthrough technology that promises to deliver solutions to many of the challenges facing the memory industry today. The merging of Intel's and STMicroelectronics' PCM development teams gives Numonyx the scale to significantly increase investment in PCM technology and bring it to the marketplace faster.

read more