Toshiba 2001 Annual Report Download - page 30

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Inc. (SCEI) and IBM Corporation reached a basic agreement to jointly develop an ad-
vanced general purpose processor architecture for a new wave of devices in the emerging
broadband era. The companies will collectively invest more than US$400 million over
the next five years to design a “supercomputer-on-a-chip.” Under the agreement, the
three companies will establish a joint development center within an IBM facility in Texas.
At its peak, the center will be staffed with nearly 300 skilled engineers dedicated to the
development project.
In the process of restructuring its operations, Toshiba has focused firmly on the selection
and concentration on core businesses. In October 2000, Toshiba and Dai Nippon
Printing Co., Ltd. established D.T. Circuit Technology Co., Ltd., a joint venture to develop,
produce and market build-up boards and functional circuit modules. In January 2001,
Toshiba and U.S.-based Amkor Technology Inc. established a joint venture, Amkor Iwate
Co., Ltd., to undertake contract semiconductor assembly and test services. Amkor Iwate
will assemble globally competitive high-end semiconductor products capitalizing on both
companies’ cutting-edge technologies, including bridge-chip packages, and global purchas-
ing channels.
Plummeting prices spurred by intense competition defined the burgeoning market for
LCD displays and stifled earnings significantly. In this environment, Toshiba will aggres-
sively direct resources to its high-value-added low-temperature polysilicon TFT LCDs.
In April 2001, Toshiba and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. established a joint ven-
ture in Singapore to manufacture low-temperature polysilicon TFT LCDs. Full-scale pro-
duction, at what will be the world’s largest manufacturing plant of its kind, is set to
commence in July 2002. The companies will invest around ¥123 billion in the venture,
and projections call for a monthly production volume of 55,000 730҂920mm boards
in fiscal 2003.
Toshiba plans to bring to market OLED panels, which are expected to be used in cellular
phones and PDAs, in the first half of 2002.
During fiscal 2000, Toshiba set about restructuring its battery operations. As a complement
to its mobile strategy, Toshiba is specializing in lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. In line
with this decision, the company agreed in September 2000 to transfer Toshiba Battery
Co., Ltd.’s nickel metal hydride battery operations to SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. The follow-
ing December, Toshiba made A&T Battery Corporation—formerly a joint venture with
Asahi Kasei Corporation—into a wholly owned subsidiary. In a related move, the Battery
Energy Division was established in January 2001 to amalgamate battery R&D and sales
functions. This move will allow Toshiba to make effective use of pooled resources and to
derive new synergies in its battery operations.
The cutting-edge system LSI digital
TV chipset, developed for the
December 2000 start of BS digital
broadcasting in Japan.
Toshiba has reinforced its leadership
in low-temperature polysilicon LCDs
by integrating a DAC and SRAM,
cutting cost and power consumption.
With this LSI, Toshiba will bring MPEG-4
to next-generation cellular phones.
Functions include a video phone.