13 percent growth is expected in the Americas this year. In Europe, we are seeing continuing strength in the SC market, primarily driven by wireless communications but also a strong showing in the automotive sector. In fact, Europe will have the fastest growth of any region, reaching 16 percent in 1998. We are in a watch mode in the Asian-Pacific region. We are still seeing a continuation of strong growth in greater China - China, Taiwan and Hong Kong and expect 12 percent growth from this area.
Japan is a weak spot in the SC market.
As the chart on the left shows, the industry average unit price per megabit for DRAMs fell 48 percent from the fourth quarter of '96 to the fourth quarter of '97. DRAM prices have remained volatile thus far in 1998. In the near term, our approach is to emphasize aggressive shrinks to decrease costs and transition to new synchronous DRAMs. TI believes these improvements will help offset some of the financial pressures faced by joint venture manufacturing operations in this environment. TI and other joint venture shareholders continue to explore further measures with respect to the joint venture structures.