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Is DRAM Really a Profitless Business?
A colleague recently asked me to verify that the DRAM business has had zero net profits over its entire history. This is something he had heard at a technology event that really surprised him. I have...
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Is NAND Headed for Lower Bit Growth?
Someone recently asked The Memory Guy to comment on a projection that NAND flash bit consumption was headed into a period of reduced growth. This appears to have stemmed from a comment made by another...
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Samsung Revenues Reflect NAND Price Increase
NAND prices have increased since July, and that appears to have helped Samsung to increase its memory revenues in the past quarter. That comes as a welcome change! As this post’s graphic illustrates...
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Does the ‘Windows Bump’ Really Exist?
DRAM manufacturers often refer to “The Windows Bump” – a phenomenon that is believed to occur after every release of a new version of the Windows operating system. According to this theory DRAM demand...
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Hybrid Memory Cube Making Progress
On Tuesday the HMC Consortium (that’s short for “Hybrid Memory Cube”) announced that members have agreed upon a specification. The consortium has been moving rapidly, meeting its targets despite the...
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Micron Samples Hybrid Memory Cube
Today Micron Technology announced that it is sampling the Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) a DRAM packaging technology that it has been working on with the HMC Consortium. Micron has been pushing to rapidly...
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Hynix Recovery – Not so Soon?
During SK hynix’ October 29 earnings call the company further clarified the status of its Wuxi fab line that was hit by a fire on September 4. In brief, the company may miss its expected end-November...
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3D NAND: Making a Vertical String
Let’s look at how one form of 3D NAND is manufactured. For this post we will explore the original design suggested by Toshiba at the IEEE’s International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) in 2007. It’s...
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Intel to Use Micron Hybrid Memory Cube
Intel and Micron today announced that the new version of Intel’s Xeon Phi, a highly parallel coprocessor for research applications, will be built using a custom version of Micron’s Hybrid Memory Cube,...
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Is the DRAM Market Entering a Shortage?
Long-term clients of mine, even those dating back to my decade at Dataquest in the 1990s, are familiar with the concept that spot prices behave differently during a shortage. When there is too much...
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Fundamentals of Memory – Free Online Course
Some time ago The Memory Guy was asked by Numonyx (later acquired by Micron) to put together an online course for EE Times on memory technologies, explaining how each one works and where it is used....
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Memory Issues in Space & Medical Applications
The Memory Guy was recently asked about using memories in a satellite. What would be a good technology to use in a space application? The problem with space is that there is a lot of radiation....
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Backing Out DRAM Process Rules
Inotera recently announced earnings and posted an impressive 55% gross margin. Inotera is a pure-play DRAM maker, so it’s not too difficult to estimate the company’s process geometries based on its...
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DRAM Prices Down, But Not So Bad
For the past ten months DRAM prices have been undergoing a steady slide. Is the market in a crisis? Not really! Today’s low spot price of $4.30/GB puts us on a par with February 2013, a full two...
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What Memory Will Intel’s Purley Platform Use?
There has been quite a lot of interest over the past few days about the apparently-inadvertent disclosure by Intel of its server platform roadmap. Detailed coverage in The Platform showed a couple of...
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Is Micron Being Acquired?
The following is an excerpt of an Objective Analysis Alert sent to our clients 7/13/15. A July 13 Wall Street Journal article disclosed that China’s state-owned Tsinghua Unigroup has bid to buy Micron...
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Super-Cooled DRAM for Big Power Savings
Recently Rambus announced that it was using cryogenic temperatures to boost computer performance in large datacenters. This research is being done in a joint project with Microsoft who is developing a...
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Why DRAM is Threatened by SSDs
Conventional wisdom holds that SSDs will someday displace all HDDs, but in reality SSDs are proving to be more of a challenge to the DRAM market than to the HDD market. Right now you are probably...
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Is the DRAM Market Entering a Shortage?
Long-term clients of mine, even those dating back to my decade at Dataquest in the 1990s, are familiar with the concept that spot prices behave differently during a shortage. When there is too much...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fundamentals of Memory – Free Online Course
Some time ago The Memory Guy was asked by Numonyx (later acquired by Micron) to put together an online course for EE Times on memory technologies, explaining how each one works and where it is used....
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