Specialty DRAM in Tight Supply, Prices Likely to Climb
It is a small breather for the DRAM industry.
Strong demand for consumer electronics such as TVs, smartphones, and tablets are squeezing 512 Mb DDR and 1 Gb DDR2 memory chips into tight supply. Production cutbacks that were encouraged by oversupply in recent quarters add to a scenario in which memory prices could be seeing an upward spike.
According to Digitimes, DRAM manufacturers were able to gradually compensate a decline in memory demand in the PC sector with increasing demand from consumer electronics.
The publication's sources stated that 512Mb DDR parts primarily used for TVs, set-top box and networking applications will especially be in short supply and that the shortage is likely to "persist through March," when production will have caught up with the market.
The 1 Gb DDR2 shortage is apparently related to manufacturing transitions as production is shifting and some major suppliers are no longer manufacturing this memory type. According to Digitimes, Hynix Semiconductor is the world's largest supplier of specialty DRAM memory.
This just in: DRAM manufacturers say that the price hike was the fault of one British employee
Using DDR in 2012 seems a tadd absurd to me, unless I am missing something...
Using DDR in 2012 seems a tadd absurd to me, unless I am missing something...
You are missing something. While consumers try to keep up, businesses and organizations like to use known trusted items before they move forward. As such, a lot of hardware for an organization typically lags behind what consumers are using because it known to be reliable where as newer hardware has not had that burn in time. Thus, older hardware is preferable to newer because it's been thoroughly tested.
This just in: DRAM manufacturers say that the price hike was the fault of one British employee
there's absolutely no need for such. it's not like you are going to play crisys on a set top box or that you need 16gb ddr3 on your fridge control panel.
DDR memory is not just used in "pc's". It's used in thousands of appliances. from dvd players to vending machines to small lcd's etc. it's overkill to use DDR3.
best comment i've read so far in this pat week!
DDR3 is pretty old now, I'd say it's tried and true enough for more general use.
The faster ARM processors aren't getting enough memory bandwidth with DDR and DDR2 so a move to DDR3 is justifiable. There's also mobile XDR which is even better, but then prices might sky-rocket by using Rambus technology. Either way, we would get better performance for lower costs and lower power usage by using DDR3. Higher capacities may also be possible, but I think that the capacity is less important than the other factors unless it allows the usage of fewer chips, improving upon the other factors even more.
Some (many) other applications of DDR memory may be overkill with DDR3, but at the least it would improve power usage so it's pretty much always justifiable unless DDR is cheaper for the job. It doesn't need to be used in higher capacities to be better, 16GB for a fridge isn't a good argument against it. Just because it's DDR3, it has to be 16GB? There are 128MB, maybe even smaller DDR3 chips. 256MB are the common chip density right now.
Testing new products takes time, and lots of money. The last thing Samsung wants is manufacturing hundreds of thousands of faulty TVs. Not only it would be a PR disaster and expensive refund program, it would also require a redesign of the TVs, which is even more expensive.
and that it was Bush's fault 2 years ago.
"OOPS!!!! we're producing too many and it's hurting our big huge bonuses and the profits. Better cut WAAAAAAAAAY! back!. Heheheheh. That will lead to a shortage and we can make up lost profits and save our bonuses because we can than demand higher prices."
Laws of supply and demand, as based on control of supply. If you can artificially control supply, you can control price, and demand way more, without any other losses due to damages from natural disasters, riots, etc.
How's the weather under that bridge, Troll?