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Chip Fight: Sun, Unisys Sue Hynix

Sun Microsystems Inc. and Unisys Corp. have filed a lawsuit against Hynix Semiconductor Inc. in the United States, apparently seeking damages related to a federal probe into price-fixing of memory chips, Hynix said Tuesday.

Hynix said in a disclosure to South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service that the companies jointly filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday.

Park Hyun, a spokesman for Hynix, had no comment on the amount of compensation being sought. He said the South Korean company would seek an out-of-court settlement.

Hynix is the world's third-largest maker of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips used in PCs.

The company was one of four that pleaded guilty to felony DRAM price-fixing charges brought by the Justice Department covering the years 1999-2002 and that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.

"The two U.S. firms seem to be taking action to follow up on the ruling," Park said.

Hynix last year agreed to pay a US$185 million fine.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., Germany's Infineon Technologies AG and Japan's Elpida Memory Inc. also pleaded guilty in the case.

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