Japan's loss-hit chipmaker Elpida Memory will be eligible for 30 billion yen, or about $312 million, in emergency investment, the government said Tuesday. The money will come from an aid program set up to help critical companies hit by the global economic downturn, making Elpida the program's first recipient, the Kyodo news agency said. The company is the world's third-largest and the only Japanese maker of dynamic random access memory chips, which are mostly used in cellular phones and computers.

Elpida Memory, Inc. (Elpida), Japan's leading global supplier of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), announced today that it has completed development of a 1-Gigabit DDR2 SDRAM based on new 65nm process technology. The 65nm process allows Elpida to create the world's smallest chip products.

Elpida (TOKYO:6665), a leading global manufacturer of DRAM chips, and UMC, (NYSE:UMC)(TSE:2303) a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced a joint development program for advanced DRAM with copper low-k backend, as well as for phase-change random access memory (PRAM).

By Pavel Alpeyev and Mikako Nakajima Elpida Memory, the sole Japanese maker of computer memory chips, plans to build a 1.6 trillion yen, or $14 billion, factory in Taiwan in an effort to overtake Samsung Electronics as the industry's largest producer.

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo Nov. 17--WASHINGTON -- A former senior official of Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc. has admitted to involvement in an international semiconductor price-fixing scam, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday. D.