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Cupertino, Calif At a time when European electronics manufacturers in general seem to be languishing, the semiconductor group at Siemens Corp. has its engines revved, coming off a nearly 40-percent growth in orders in fiscal 1994. More important, for a unit that had been a huge cash consumer inside Siemens, the semiconductor operation is now the German industrial company's most profitable business.
Part of the explanation for this turnaround is simple: Siemens, whose U.S. headquarters is here, is a major player in the incredibly lucrative-at-the-moment global memory market. Memories account for only about a third of Siemens's semiconductor business, though. For the rest, look to fine engineering and hard-headed management.
Key areas
There are at least four main strategies, according to a company spokesman. These key areas are memories, microcontrollers, chip cards and communications.
In the memory area, Siemens several years ago reached the conclusion that it had to be a major player. "Our tactic was to stay in the memory market, even though the Japanese companies had driven prices very low, if we thought there was any chance at all for technical improvements to be made," the spokesman explained.
But staying in DRAMs through the early 1990s was too big a job for Siemens to take on alone. The company entered an alliance with IBM Corp. for development of 16-Mbit DRAMs. Toshiba Corp. later joined in the consortium.
The result has been a very competitive 16-Mbit DRAM, with 64-Mbit and 256-Mbit parts on the way. "At the VLSI Symposium in Kyoto this year, we Siemens' IC group reports big growth will describe what...