Samsung Electronics stayed on the top spot among makers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), while Taiwanese makers of memory, headed by Nanya, made a giant leap forward in terms of shipments, says recently released market research report from Gartner Dataquest.

The research firm said that the Q3 DRAM revenue was $6.47 billion, up 11.5% quarter-over-quarter, whereas the combined DRAM sales across the industry in the first nine months of 2005 were down 1.9% compared to the same period last year and achieved $18.9 billion. According to the forecast of Gartner Dataquest, random access memory revenues for the year will achieve $25.7 billion, down 2.3% from 2004.

“The top three fastest growing vendors were all Taiwanese. Nanya was the star performer with its revenues leaping 37%,” said Andrew Norwood, research vice-president at Gartner Dataquest.

While Taiwan-based DRAM vendors controlled 15.4% of the market in Q3 2005, the share is still well-below the historical maximum of 17% in Q2 2004, noted Mr. Norwood.

The three of the world’s largest makers of DRAM compete not only as makers of dynamic random access memory devices, but also as makers of NAND flash, which is why Samsung’s share is lower than historically, as some of the company’s manufacturing capacities are now dedicated to NAND flash, which inevitably lowers the company’s ability to manufacture DRAM chips. Micron Technology and Hynix Semiconductor are also battling for NAND flash market share.