U.S. Memories?

Nick Baran

In January 1990, a group of major U.S. semiconductor and computer firms, including Advanced Micro Devices, DEC, HP, IBM, Intel, LSI Logic, and National Semiconductor, announced plans to form a new independent company called U.S. Memories. The intention was to make the U.S. once again a major producer of DRAMs and to ensure a domestic supply of the memory chips. U.S. production of DRAMs had dwindled to under 10 percent, with Texas Instruments and Micron the only commercial suppliers. Headed by former IBM executive Sanford Kane, U.S. Memories was announced before it had the required funding to begin construction of a factory and to begin production of IBM-designed 4-Mb DRAMs.

The plan was to raise about $500 million from a variety of semiconductor and computer companies. Because many of the potential investors got cold feet, U.S. Memories never got off the ground. Other companies, such as Sun and Apple, declined to join the cooperative venture. Today, Micron and TI are still the only major producers of DRAMs in the U.S., although Motorola has begun commercial manufacture of DRAMs again. According to statistics from the market research firm Instat, U.S. production of DRAMs accounts for only 15 percent of the world market, with Japan and Korea holding the lion's share of the rest. This is some improvement over 1990 (largely due to the reentry of Motorola into the market), but it's a far cry from the ambitious goals of U.S. Memories.