TOKYO -- Toshiba Corporation and IBM Corporation announced plans today t o establish a joint venture in the U.S. to manufacture dynamic random ac cess memory (DRAM) chips, beginning with 64-megabit DRAMs. These semicon ductor products are used in computers, multimedia products and a variety of information processing equipment.

The proposed venture, expected to be established by the end of 1995, wil l be jointly owned and operated by IBM and Toshiba America Electronic Co mponents, Inc., Toshiba's U.S. subsidiary for manufacturing, marketing, and sales of electronic components.

The project calls for a total investment of more than US$1.2 billion ove r three years and includes the construction and joint operation of a waf er fabrication plant to be built on a site in Manassas, Virginia current ly owned by IBM. The plant wil include an advanced clean room for fabric ating semiconductor products using 8-inch wafers and 0.35 micron lithogr aphy and below. Construction of the fabrication plant is expected to beg in in January 1996, with production of qualified products planned for th e fourth quarter of 1997.

When it reaches full operation, the total capacity of the plant will exc eed 27,000 wafer starts per month and total employment is expected to re ach 1,200. Technical and production expertise will be provided to the ne w facility from both Toshiba and IBM. Once processed, wafers will be shi pped to Toshiba and IBM for final assembly at their respective facilitie s. Marketing of the finished products will be conducted independently by the two companies.

The new joint venture will allow Toshiba to enhance its commitment and s ervice to the U.S. market and also to strengthen its cost competitivenss against the U.S. dollar. It allows IBM to address the continuing strong demand for high-quality semiconductor products both inside and outside IBM.

This new company will be the second major manufacturing joint venture be tween IBM and Toshiba. Toshiba Corporation and IBM Japan have a joint pr oduction facility of large-sized color active matrix thin film transisto r liquid crystal display in Himeji, Japan.

Worldwide demand for DRAMs is expected to continue to show strong growth . Forecasts indicate a market of US$23 billion in 1995, rising 70 percen t to US$39 billion in 1996. The next-generation 64MDRAMs to be manufactu red by the JV are expected to see growing demand from 1997, with bit-bas is production surpassing that of 16MDRAMs in 1998.

Masanobu Ohyama, Executive Vice President of Toshiba Corporation says, " We are delighted to be further extending our partnership with IBM. The n ew joint venture brings together the capabilities of two leading manufac turers with world-class semiconductor technologies. I also believe the p roject can make a positive contribution to the progress in cooperation b etween the United States and Japan."

"Today's announcement is an important part of IBM's plans to further enh ance its position as a major producer of leading-edge semiconductor prod ucts," says Dr. Michael J. Attardo, general manager, IBM Microelectronic s Division. "We are committed to meeting current and future demands of o ur merchant and internal customers. And we are pleased to be able to sha re this major manufacturing effort with a leading technology company suc h as Toshiba."