As part of the project announced by both companies in February 2008, leading Korean memory chip makers Samsung and Hynix announced on June 25 that they have forged a strategic alliance, whereby the two companies will jointly develop and standardize 450mm, or 18-inch, chips based on the STT-MRAM (Spin Torque Transfer Magnetic Random Access Memory) technology, Taiwan's Economic Daily News reported.

Created as a means to reduce the burden of research costs as well as royalty payments to foreign companies, the joint venture is slated to begin operations in September 2008, according to EE Times Europe.

Recently, Japanese memory chip makers Toshiba, NEC, and Fujitsu also announced a partnership on developing STT-MRAM chips. It is reported that the three Japanese companies will jointly invest three billion Yen (US$28.0 million; US$1=107.0 Yen) in the R&D project which runs from 2006 through 2010, according to Taiwan's Economic Daily News.