Samsung Elec deal to make Xilinx chips

Published: 02 Feb 2009 19:22:33 PST

SEOUL, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS), the world's largest maker of memory chips, said on Tuesday it signed a contract manufacturing deal to produce chips for Xilinx Inc (XLNX.O), a U.S. programmable chip company.

Samsung said in a statement it would produce Xilinx's filed-programmable gate array (FPGA) products, a type of advanced programmable logic chips that can be configured by customers or designers after manufacturing.

Production would start immediately, Samsung said, without giving the amount or value of the deal.

Memory chip giant Samsung started a push into contract chipmaking, known as the foundry business, in 2004 and counts Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) among its customers.

By 0124 GMT, Samsung shares were up 2.22 percent at 484,000 won, leading the wider market's 0.37 percent gain.

(Reporting by Rhee So-eui, Editing by Jacqueline Wong)