Under the terms of the agreement, Elpida said it will acquire Qimonda's technology licenses and a portion of the design assets related to Graphics DDR memory (GDDR) — used in high-speed computers and games.

Elpida said it intends to quickly ramp up a full-fledged GDDR business. GDDR technology development will continue at Elpida's recently-built Munich Design Center, where nearly 50 engineers and other former Qimonda employees involved in GDDR development work will take up new posts.

The company said it expects to ship of 1-Gigabit GDDR3 and 1-Gigabit GDDR5 products in the first half of 2010. Their production will be outsourced to Taiwanese Winbond Electronics Corp.

Looking forward, Elpida said it plans to start mass production of 2-Gigabit GDDR5 at its Hiroshima Plant in the second half of 2010.

The other leading suppliers of graphics memories are Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor.

Insolvent Qimonda announced at the end of July that its Dresden fab, which was been set into a 'sleep mode' in April, would be closed by the end of the year. Of the 200 employees currently working to maintain the equipment, 50 percent would be laid off, according to media releases.