China’s first domestically built DRAM chips, developed by ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc., reached the market in a step forward in the country’s long-pursued effort to enter a lucrative electronic sector dominated by foreigners.

Several memory devices powered by ChangXin’s DRAM chips have appeared on the domestic market since May. Leading flash storage producer Shenzhen Longsys Electronics Co. Ltd. said May 15 that ChangXin’s chips passed related tests and would equip three of its storage products.

ChangXin’s chips have met basic criteria but may still fall short of capability requirements of higher-end customers compared with products of industry leaders, an analyst said. DRAM chips, for dynamic random access memory, are essential building blocks for storing information in most electronic devices such as computers and smartphones.

ChangXin is among a handful of Chinese chipmakers exploring DRAM production and has invested 15 billion yuan in the campaign. Most of the world’s DRAM and NAND, the other major kind of memory, are currently produced by South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix, as well as U.S. producer Micron Technology, which collectively control 90% of the global market.

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Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com)