BEIJING – While most of China's fabless industry is pursuing apps processors, GigaDevice Semiconductor Inc. is targeting a market most have forsaken: NOR flash memory.
In a recent interview with
EE Times, GigaDevice CEO and President Yiming Zhu proclaimed the NOR flash memory segment “a $3 billion market [per year] with no growth.” Market researcher IC Insights backs that assessment, citing a 25 percent decline in the NOR flash market in 2011. “While the market for NAND flash memory is forecast to top the growth list, NOR flash is forecast to be at the bottom of the list with the biggest percent decline in sales for 2012.” IC Insights predicts a 14 percent drop in the NOR flash market in 2012.
So why go after a shrinking market?
“NOR flash is a market that’s gradually scaling down,” Zhu (left) explained. “But almost all electronics systems -- TVs, set-top boxes, DVDs, ultra-low-cost cell phones and others -- are embedded with NOR flash.”