Details on Apple-Hynix flash agreement

Apple last December agreed to buy at least 20 percent of Hynix Semiconductor NAND flash memory chips until 2010, according to the South Korean chipmaker's latest SEC filings. In November, Apple announced it would prepay $1.25 billion for flash memory, promising $250 each to five different companies: Hynix, Intel, Micron, Samsung Electronics and Toshiba. The recent Hynix filing indicates that Apple agreed in December to buy 40 million gigabytes of flash memory chips this year from Hynix alone, according to Apple also said it would increase orders by at least 180 percent a year until the end of the decade, according to the document. "Every quarter, Cupertino, California-based Apple will match orders to Hynix from the preceding three-month period or buy at least 20 percent of the company's NAND production, whichever is larger, according to the document. The chips will be sold at a price that won't exceed what was specified in the December agreement, Hynix said, without specifying the amount," according to Bloomberg.