Samsung first announced moves in that direction in 1996 but the Asian financial crisis forced it to brake. Samsung already has tripled the number of engineers dedicated to system-LSI research, to about 2,500, over the past three years. Many are Samsung's best brains with proven track records in memory-chip design. The company values their talents so much that it won't allow the researchers to fly in large groups on business trips, lest a plane crash undermine the company's future. Because we'll be concentrating our efforts in only a small segment of non-memory chips, we think we'll do quite well.
Microprocessors are the most important kind of non-memory chips.
Eventually, it hopes non-memory chip sales will account for half of the company's semiconductor output. But that will depend upon its researchers coming up with a steady stream of innovative designs for specialized applications. The plan clearly contains a fair amount of bravado. What's more, Samsung's Japanese competitors are trying to do the same thing and have much stronger engineering and design skills, analysts say. The world's most sophisticated makers of digital appliances, from televisions to cameras to car-navigation systems, are located right in Japan, putting Japanese chip makers in prime position to team up with them.