Posted by
emmett
on from the do-you-suffer-from-long-term-memory-loss dept.
CitizenC writes: "ACK! According to this C|Net story, RAM prices are expected to go up again this week, due to the low supply and high demand. Buy your RAM now!"
High SDRAM prices are bad for Rambus
by
Guppy
·
· Score: 5
On the surface, it sounds like a SDRAM price hike would be good for RDRAM, as it would close (slightly) the price gap between the two sorts of memory. In reality, though, this is bad for Rambus. There are plenty of other issues with Rambus (die size, yield, packaging, royalties, etc...), but the biggest one in simple economics.
A year or two ago, the big carrot that Rambus had to offer to manufacturers was a potentially profitable product. SDRAM prices were in the dumps, so nobody was making any money no matter how much they could churn out. Fast forward to present day, and just about every fab is guaranteed a nice fat profit, just for producing a commodity chip. The only way to justify the risk and cost of switching production from SDRAM to RDRAM is if RDRAM fetches a huge margin. Hence low supplies and sky-high prices for Rambus.
Intel has been pushing manufacturers to "voluntarily" cut their margins and drop prices on RDRAM. For once, though, it seems the memory makers have the upper hand, and there have been no takers so far.
High demand fueled by these rumors
by
gklyber
·
· Score: 5
Of course, with articles like this, everyone will go out and buy RAM. There may be high demand right now, but these rumors will make demand skyrocket and make the prices even higher. Somebody at C|Net must want their memory stock to improve in value.
The semiconductor industry is about to be slashdotted!
Nothing makes prices skyrocket like panic buying
by
redelm
·
· Score: 5
C'mon/. , you're playing right into the hands of the DRAM mfrs. They don't like the current low prices and have lost a bundle on Rambus. So they're taking this low-profit time to do some maintenance/retooling on some fabs. Perfectly normal.
They've also got lots of chips in inventories to meet sales. A plant fire when demand is tight is one thing, but a planned shutdown when demand is slack is quite another.
But starting a buying panic is very much in their interest. CNet bought the story, hook-line&sinker. Now you. Fortunately, the hobbyist market is fairly small, and I doubt can move prices. The big OEMs (Dell, Compaq, HP, IBM) are smarter than to fall for this.
Slashdot Mirror
On the surface, it sounds like a SDRAM price hike would be good for RDRAM, as it would close (slightly) the price gap between the two sorts of memory. In reality, though, this is bad for Rambus. There are plenty of other issues with Rambus (die size, yield, packaging, royalties, etc...), but the biggest one in simple economics.
A year or two ago, the big carrot that Rambus had to offer to manufacturers was a potentially profitable product. SDRAM prices were in the dumps, so nobody was making any money no matter how much they could churn out. Fast forward to present day, and just about every fab is guaranteed a nice fat profit, just for producing a commodity chip. The only way to justify the risk and cost of switching production from SDRAM to RDRAM is if RDRAM fetches a huge margin. Hence low supplies and sky-high prices for Rambus.
Intel has been pushing manufacturers to "voluntarily" cut their margins and drop prices on RDRAM. For once, though, it seems the memory makers have the upper hand, and there have been no takers so far.
Of course, with articles like this, everyone will go out and buy RAM. There may be high demand right now, but these rumors will make demand skyrocket and make the prices even higher.
Somebody at C|Net must want their memory stock to improve in value.
The semiconductor industry is about to be slashdotted!
C'mon
They've also got lots of chips in inventories to meet sales. A plant fire when demand is tight is one thing, but a planned shutdown when demand is slack is quite another.
But starting a buying panic is very much in their interest. CNet bought the story, hook-line&sinker. Now you. Fortunately, the hobbyist market is fairly small, and I doubt can move prices. The big OEMs (Dell, Compaq, HP, IBM) are smarter than to fall for this.