The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has asked Mitsubishi Electric’s U.S. unit for information regarding sales of static RAM (SRAM) chips in the United States, the Japanese company said Monday.Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics U.S.A. received a subpoena from the DoJ, the company said without providing any further information.SRAM is typically used as a memory buffer in devices such as computers and hard-disk drives. It can retain data as long as power is supplied. That puts it between dynamic RAM (DRAM), which retains data with power but requires refreshing, and flash memory, which retains data even when power is not supplied.The company’s SRAM business was spun off to Renesas Technology in 2003, and Mitsubishi currently holds a 45 percent stake in that company. The announcement comes less than a week after Cypress Semiconductor said it had been notified that the DoJ’s antitrust division will be launching an investigation into the SRAM market. The DoJ is already probing price fixing in the DRAM market, and Mitsubishi Electric was contacted in May this year regarding that investigation, it said at the time.The DRAM investigation has uncovered evidence of price fixing by major chip makers bidding for business with big U.S. computer makers including Dell, Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Several DRAM makers have been ordered to pay fines as high as US$300 million, and three Samsung executives agreed to serve prison time for the part they played in the price fixing. -Martyn Williams, IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content brandpost Sponsored by FPT Software Time for New Partnership Paradigms to Be Future-fit By Veronica Lew Dec 06, 2023 5 mins Vendors and Providers brandpost Sponsored by BMC Why CIOs should prioritize AIOps in 2024 AIOps empowers IT to manage services by incorporating AI/ML into operations. By Jeff Miller Dec 06, 2023 3 mins IT Leadership opinion Generative AI in enterprises: LLM orchestration holds the key to success In the dynamic landscape of AI, LLMs represent a pivotal breakthrough. Unlike traditional AI, which demands frequent data updates, LLMs possess the ability to learn and adapt in real-time. This mirrors human learning and positions LLMs as essential f By Shail Khiyara Dec 06, 2023 10 mins Generative AI Artificial Intelligence brandpost Sponsored by Freshworks How gen AI is joining the holiday shopping season One year after the launch of ChatGPT, the retail industry is embracing generative AI to deliver a variety of benefits By Elliot Markowitz Dec 06, 2023 4 mins Generative AI Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe