Related (about memory chips, but probably still relevant): A 0.07-Second Power Problem at Toshiba Chip-Plant May Affect Digital Device Availability/Prices.

There was a Wall Street Journal news story (among others) this morning reporting that "there was a sudden drop in voltage that caused a 0.07-second power interruption at Toshiba's Yokkaichi memory-chip plant in Mie prefecture" causing a problem which Toshiba said will reduce its shipments of NAND flash memory by 20% for the next two months. This, the Journal article says, would translate into a 7.5% reduction in world-wide shipments through February.

NAND memory is used in everything from USB flash drives to MP3 players to digital cameras to smartphones and tablet PCs. [...]

The WSJ article also says that apparently the uninterruptible power supply system at the Toshiba plant failed when the region was hit by a drop in voltage, causing the chips being fabricated to be ruined.

http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2010/12/the-value-of-007-seconds.html :

Toshiba's troubles started early Wednesday when, according to power supplier Chubu Electric Power Co., there was a sudden drop in voltage that caused a 0.07-second power interruption at Toshiba's Yokkaichi memory-chip plant in Mie prefecture.

Even the briefest power interruption to the complex machines that make chips can have an effect comparable to disconnecting the power cord on a desktop computer, since the computerized controls on the systems must effectively be rebooted, said Dan Hutcheson, a chip-manufacturing analyst at VLSI Research in San Jose, Calif.

For that reason, chip companies typically take precautions that include installing what the industry calls uninterruptible power supplies. Part of Toshiba's safeguards didn't work this time because the voltage drop was more severe than what the backup system is designed to handle, a company spokesman said.

Power outages frequently cause damage to chips, which are fabricated on silicon wafers about the size of dinner plates that may take eight to 12 weeks to process, Mr. Hutcheson said. Wafers that are inside processing machines at the time of an outage are often ruined, he added, though many that are in storage or in transit among those machines are not.