Powerchip Technology has restarted its NOR flash production line amid tight supply of the memory.

Robust NOR flash demand from customers has encouraged Powerchip to restart its NOR flash manufacturing, according to the contract chipmaker, which suspended production of the memory many years ago.

Powerchip will provide foundry services for NOR flash memory at its Taiwan site, the company said. As for its joint-venture 12-inch fab in Hefei, China, risk production will begin in the second half of 2017 to support the company's logic IC customers.

Powerchip specializes in the manufacture of logic products such as panel driver ICs, CMOS image sensors and power management ICs, and DRAM and NAND flash memory chips.