Sony Corp. says U.S. Justice Department is probing its electronics unit

TOKYO (AP) - Sony Corp. said Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Justice is probing its electronics unit. The company received a subpoena from the Justice Department's antitrust division seeking information about Sony's static random access memory, or SRAM, business, company spokesman Atsuo Omagari said. Sony intends to co-operate with the investigation, which it described as an industrywide probe without elaborating. Omagari declined to provide other details about the probe.

SRAM is a kind of computer memory that is faster and more reliable that DRAM, or dynamic random access memory. It does not need to be refreshed like DRAM, and it is also more expensive.

SRAM is found in relatively small quantities in personal computers. It's also used in disk drives, communications equipment and networking gear.

In 2005, Sony produced US$27.7 million worth of SRAM. The product is made by outside manufactures for Sony, which in turn sells the memory chips to other electronics makers, Omagari said.

He would not say who manufactures the chips for Sony or who Sony's customers were.

Earlier this month, U.S.-based chipmaker Cypress Semiconductor Corp. said its SRAM operations were also under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

A separate U.S. Justice investigation into price-fixing among DRAM companies has so far resulted in more than a dozen charges against individuals and more than $731 million in fines against Samsung Electronics Co., Elpida Memory Inc., Infineon Technologies AG and Hynix Semiconductor Inc.

© The Canadian Press, 2006