International Business Machines Corp. says it is the first company to successfully make 16-megabit computer-memory chips on a production line.
"To demonstrate manufacturing feasibility of the 16-million-bit memory chip so quickly will enhance our competitiveness in a global semiconductor market," said IBM President Jack Kuehler.Each 16-megabit chip stores the equivalent of about 1,600 pages of double-spaced typewritten text and operates at very high speeds, allowing nearly all of its 16,777,216 bits to be accessed faster than the blink of an eye.
Just last year a number of computer companies, including IBM, began producing four-megabit chips, called Dynamic Random Access Memory or DRAM chips, which are the current leading-edge technology.
Although IBM and other companies are using four-megabit DRAMs in some of their most advanced computers, production is only now being stepped up for the general market where older one-megabit chips predominate.