Fujitsu, the Japanese electronics concern has announced plans to restructure its semiconductor business.
The company will transfer the chip business, which has struggled in the face of falling prices and increased competition, into a new unit as it tries to make the business more appealing to potential partnerships with other chip makers.
Fujitsu's business building system chips, used in products ranging from digital cameras to supercomputers, has also struggled with the high cost of keeping up with the latest technology and retooling fabrication plans to cope with more intricate manufacturing processes.
The company also said it would transfer development and test production of state-of-the art system chips to its Mie plant in central Japan from a technology centre in Tokyo, at a cost of some 10 billion yen (48 million).
The firm said these moves are designed to improve the time-to-market for new products, as well as helping the company to compete more effectively in the industry.
(Additional reporting by Taiga Uranaka, Reuters)
