Don't know who Macronix is? Well they kind of are the power in the "now you're playing with power." Or at least the next power. RAM my friends! Oh never mind. Check out the story from EE Times.

Macronix is also branching out into the world of logic. Last week it reported securing a large, long-term order of $2 billion from Nintendo to supply custom-designed ASIC chip sets. Macronix said the company is also negotiating for renewed orders with other leading Japanese companies like NEC, Sony and Toshiba.

"About 60 percent of Macronix sales are to Nintendo," said a securities analyst here. "They also are doing foundry [work] for Mitsubishi and VLSI."

"Currently, we provide about 65 percent of Nintendo's memory demands," Yiu said. "We are currently developing an ASIC chip for Nintendo's new DVD game player. It is due to be shipped next Christmas. The ASIC is of our own design and we will [manufacture] it for Nintendo."

Nintendo's new DVD game player will use a proprietary IBM CPU and a Matsushita-made DVD drive.

To meet growing demand, Macronix plans to raise $43.5 million by offering new shares at a premium of 90 cents per share. The company will also issue global depository receipts worth $55 million to boost the output of silicon wafers at its No. 2 plant.

Company executives said the Sept. 21 earthquake in Taiwan, and the subsequent power-supply blackout, had forced a suspension of production operations for 10 days and caused a direct loss of about $10 million, though that amount is covered by insurance.