Toshiba Will Spin Off Some Of Its Memory Business (computerworld.com) 13
Lucas123 writes: Toshiba, which invented NAND flash, plans to sell off an as-of-yet undisclosed portion of its memory business, including its solid-state drive unit, to Western Digital. Toshiba is spinning the business off to WD, a business ally, because it hopes in the long run the Toshiba-WD alliance will enable an expansion in NAND flash production capacity and increased efficiency in storage product development... Currently, Toshiba and WD together represent 35% of global NAND flash production; Samsung leads that market with 36% of production. "Toshiba wants to put its memory business in a more stable financial position," said Sean Yang, research director of DRAMeXchange. "Facing mounting operational and competitive pressure, the spun-off entity will be more effective in raising cash to stay afloat or expand"...
Toshiba's solvency and fundraising ability are also in trouble because of a $1.9 billion accounting scandal and a multi-billion dollar loss related to a nuclear plant purchase. Last week, Toshiba announced its share price had tumbled 13% after reports that its nuclear power business had lost $4.4 billion.
Toshiba's solvency and fundraising ability are also in trouble because of a $1.9 billion accounting scandal and a multi-billion dollar loss related to a nuclear plant purchase. Last week, Toshiba announced its share price had tumbled 13% after reports that its nuclear power business had lost $4.4 billion.
So, ... (Score:2)
... memory loss.
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Nope, just one more nail in the coffin of nuclear energy. If Westinghouse, the makers of the fabulous AP-1000 fourth gen reactor can't figure out how to make them without staying an order of magnitude within it's budget it's doubtful anybody is going to try it. Especially with wind and solar chewing on the insulation.
We are just a battery technology away from killing it altogether.
Which may or may not be a good thing. Lots to be said for a relatively compact, long lived, gigawatt level power supply. To
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We are just a battery technology away from killing it altogether.
Well no. Not even the wildest projections of eventual battery capacity meet or exceed what a nuclear power plant can do, so they'll never die. Specifically, US military reactors will always be with us, in submarines and aircraft carriers.
For that matter, the existing civilian reactor fleet worldwide will be with us for many decades. Together with their fuel loads, they represent a tremendous sunk cost. They will be kept operational for as long as their fuel lasts, at the very least. I suspect many of t
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There were certainly be certain types of reactors that will always be needed, but it does seem the case, no matter what the nuclear power advocates (not to mention the oil, natural gas and coal advocates) have to say, that the storage technology is likely to supplant the more "traditional" energy production systems within a few decades. At some point existing reactors will end up having to be dealt with by taxpayers, like any industrial mess. Maybe the technology to adequately deal with nuclear waste will b
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Does someone need infinitely improving storage technology? Where are you driving to, the Moon? And coupled with other large-scale forms of storage, like solar or wind pumps for dams and various other means of mechanically or thermally storing renewable energy, is there some reason you imagine people will still want to run very expensive nuclear reactors that still require digging the fuel out of the ground at some point. Now maybe someone invents a fusion reactor that can produce a net amount of energy in l
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Yes, a revolution, and also because battery technology, even as of today, will mean a lot more distributed storage.
Like the Tesla Powerwall that is available now.
More distributed power storage will also mean higher safety, because then there won't be one single plant to attack to put a lot of people in misery.
Just like computing today, the net is the computer, not some single large mainframe.
Batteries may eventually not just be LiIon, but all kinds of electrical, chemical and mechanical systems, which will
Logical following Sandisk (Score:5, Interesting)
Given that WD had acquired Sandisk a while ago, which sources their NAND flash from Toshiba, this decision certainly makes sense, and helps bring inhouse WD's supply for both Sandisk as well as their own SSDs
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