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from the it's-non-of-your-NAND-business dept.
Toshiba is considering splitting its NAND business into a separate company and selling a stake in it to Western Digital or another investor:
In the recent months, Toshiba ran into a new accounting scandal that may require it to write down as much as 4 billion dollars because of cost overruns at its U.S. nuclear power business. The exact number has not been finalized, but the company is already studying various possibilities to offset the massive loss, which would anger its investors after the company already faced an accounting scandal in 2015. Nikkei reports that Toshiba is mulling to spin off its semiconductor business into a separate entity and then sell a 20% in the new company to someone like Western Digital for about $2.7 billion, while retaining 80% stake as well as operational control of the unit. Toshiba confirmed that it is studying the possibility of its memory business spin-off, but noted that no decision has been made and that the in-house NAND production is a focal business.
Toshiba and Western Digital already operate the world's largest NAND flash production complex in Yokkaichi, Mie prefecture, Japan. Formally, the manufacturing facilities belong to joint ventures between the two companies and WD buys wafers from Toshiba. It is not completely clear how the spinoff would work in this case and which parts of Toshiba's business will be up for sale.
Also at Tom's Hardware.
[Continued...]
Tom's Hardware also reports on the delayed release of Samsung's 4 TB SSDs due to NAND shortages:
In the months leading up to CES, we spotted a press document that listed Samsung's award winners for the show. Among the various consumer electronics products stood the 850 Pro 4TB as the only SSD we didn't already know about. The MLC large-capacity prosumer model has long been rumored since the release of the 850 EVO 4TB with 3-bit per cell V-NAND flash technology. Well, CES came and went, but the 850 Pro 4TB never materialized. We reached out to Samsung for comment and received a reply. Speaking through Allison+Partners, Samsung's North American PR agency, we received this response:
"As a result of the worldwide NAND shortage, Samsung is focused on allocating NAND to products where we see the greatest demand. We will let you know when further updates on the 850 PRO 4TB are available."
[...] On the surface, the response is exactly what we expected from the world's largest SSD manufacturer, but we quickly realized its true value. This is the first confirmation of a retail SSD release that has been delayed due to the NAND shortage. Several recent products have come to market in short supply, like the 960 Series, but none have been pushed completely off the shelf, as far as we know.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Monday January 23 2017, @06:00PM
Thanks for for responding to this butthurt complainer's off-topic remark and explaining that that's the way the coders and subscribers want the site to work.
> [...] it got the +1 bonus for him being a subscriber.
I wasn't aware that there was such a bonus. When I click on the comment number to display the moderation, "Karma-Bonus Modifier" is displayed and I see Runaway1956's subscriber star, but there's not an explicit indication that an extra score point was added because he's a subscriber. If it were explicitly shown, moderators might better know not to bother. I'm having trouble finding my comment about it, but something very similar happened a few days ago when I tried to down-mod a post by aristarchus, who doesn't display a subscriber's star. I understand that showing the star is up to the discretion of the subscriber. Should subscribers be able to use their bonus point without anyone knowing until an attempt is made to down-moderate? Sneaky!
I don't dig that it lets folks waste a mod point trying to further downmod comments already at -1 in that situation but I can't fix it right this moment.
I'm almost certain that my mod points weren't used this time. I think one may have been used on the other occasion, with aristarchus' post. Since comments that are replies to an article, and which have a 0 score, are shown by default, they are visible for readers who don't log in and don't bother changing the viewing defaults for the article. They're also visible to search engines. Hence they become part of the most public face of the site. There aren't many such posts, but they may discourage casual visitors from deciding to participate.
If the subscriber's bonus could have the same effect as the karma bonus, so that subscribers could post at +3 but could be "modded to oblivion" I think it might be better for the site.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday January 23 2017, @06:33PM
Yeah, I guess I'll look into figuring this annoying little mess out after I get bitcoin working again, which will be first thing after this upcoming release.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.