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Tech Industry Warns Of Memory / LCD Shortage
yankeehack writes: "Oh Joy! The Standard published this article which explains predicted shortages of critical memory and LCD components (resulting in-of course-higher prices and delayed product launches). Component makers including Intel, Hyundai, NEC and Sharp Electronics are among those quoted for the article. Those afflicted by the shortage include Nintendo's Game Boy Advanced handheld console (Does anybody *still* use those?) which will be released 6 months late and mobile phone manufacturers, who are having trouble getting the hardware for all those nifty features they advertise."
If this were another commodity, let's say maybe wood or something, I might agree with the conspiracy idea, you know, the one where they're just jacking up prices to get greater profits. But building chip fabs is extrodinarily expensive. So expensive that if you build one bigger than you'll need in a little while, it can be death to your company. Hand-held markets have boomed lately, will cell phones and whatnot. They need computer parts - or, more accurately, parts that used to be reserved for computer-related fields. Nobody REALLY foresaw this, so now we've got a big, massive, enourmous demand for memory and LCDs, which the current fabs just simply can't meet. Considering the time it takes to build one manufacturing facility, I understand the 12-18 month time frame given. Most of the tech industry is on a next-day schedule. That is, they order the parts when they are absolutely sure them need them - few places have the warehouse space to stock big inventories any more. So, that combined with holiday shopping WILL create a big shortage. There's no way around it. As for the gas shortage, that's just greed. OPEC could easily produce more oil, but they choose not to. It's a different situation all together.
Dave
Barclay family motto:
Aut agere aut mori.
(Either action or death.)
I thought for a moment that you said there would be a memory and LSD shortage. Had me worried there.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
The DRAM market seems to alternate between drought and glut. Intel got their start making DRAMs, with the i1103 DRAM, a 1024 bit chip which helped kill magnetic core memory.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Our assembly house recently bought a reel of 330 uF tantalum caps for US$15/piece. With an MOQ of 1000, that cost US$15,000, which is more than the average new car in this country! (.nz) That's one reel of capacitors! The guy had about an hour to make the decision to buy before someone else bought it instead.
This problem is not new. It is just getting worse. We have been told tantalums will be impossible to get (for prototyping groups like ourselves) in the next few months.
For some reason, we haven't had difficulty getting flash ROMs like other people have. I put that down to the package type (PLCC) we use.
That's quite a shock to me. Last I saw, 64MB was gonna cost me about $70. I was thinking maybe they mean the subchips that go on each DIMM, but aren't there 16 of those on each? Maybe they're referring to PC133.
Well, anyway, I am a bit curious as to whether or not this is completely market-driven. I know that this won't explain all the shortages, but I remember that RAM became fairly pricey after the Taiwan earthquake. Is it possible we're still feeling after-effects of that? (I recall reading somewhere that Taiwan makes 70% of the world's DRAM, correct me if I'm wrong.)
Any thoughts?
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
Oooo, I know something!!! I was doing research on urban sprawl last summer and read an article which cited a study (admittedly this was anti-sprawl) calculated what the tax on gasoline should be to take into account all the costs that are involved (including pollution, road wear, construction of subsidized interstates, and fighting the Gulf War). The tax is currently what, a quarter or two? It should be $6.50.
Tech Firms May Have to Fish for Memory Chips
Legal Notice
According to our legal staff, The Standard is infringing on our patent #31415926, A Method for Producing Loud Groans and Retching Noises, with this lame pun. We are therefore warning The Standard to immediately cease and desist from this infringement or face legal action.
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You are in a twisty little maze of open source licenses, all different.
Has not yet been released, so it wouldn't really be that surprising for someone to be useing one because of it's old age, would it?
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Ok big shock. Extreme shortages around times when people are buying more, allowing for increased prices.
Does this sound fishy to anyone else? It sounds to me like the hardware industry is taking advantage of the record number of computers and other devices that will be sold this year.
Maybe I'm just being paranoid but this isn't the only "shortage" we're having. Gotten gas lately?
People may be getting a little more greedy....
> Nintendo's Game Boy Advanced handheld console
>(Does anybody *still* use those?) which will be
Don't be such a snob. Let's not forget that one of the most succesful RPG adventures in recent time appeared exclusively on the Game Boy. You might have heard of it; it's an obscure little game by the name of "Pokémon". The fact that Nintendo is still here today, in spite of overwhelming competition from Sony (and to a lesser degree, Sega) can be attributed mostly to the success of the Game Boy. That's not bad for a piece of twenty-year old technology. I only wish PC programmers knew how to extend the lifespans of their platforms like that.
Hee-hee. Dying tickles!
Windows
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Anyone here who remembers the original DRAM drought of the mid-80's?
I can't recall if the fact that virtually all US companies stopped making DRAMs was the cause of the shortage or the direct result.
Even today, only Micron still makes DRAM chips stateside. (Did they ever open that Idaho facility?)
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
Of course! How else am I going to play Pokémon?
Pricewatch still sells 64MB of SDRAM for $49. Pretty damn good prices. Usually you see the prices drop before you read an article like this. I don't remember what the prices were like back in February (too much up and down). I don't think comparing today's $8.50 to February's $4.50 is a good example, considering that February was close to an all time low.
I still can't believe this article came out before the prices dropped, so if you do believe the article, go buy your Dimms up today. Or wait through the storm, like I had to late last year ($2.50 + per MB?? ouch)
Oh no?! Does this mean that's Intel dream of RDRAM being the Next Big Thing(tm) will be even MORE expensive? Ha! Bastard hype.
Now LCD displays, that should be interesting. I wonder if these new, sharp TFT displays are eating up resources?
Rader
"It is majorly ironic that the Game Boy is the most successful video game unit ever yet it receives the least press of all the systems. With a ten-year life span and sales exceeding 80 million units worldwide, you'd think the Game Boy would have more to show in terms of coverage. The latest retail sales data indicates that handheld gaming represents 19 percent of all U.S. video game purchases, the overwhelming bulk of which can be directly traced back to the Game Boy. So we can only wonder why such a powerfully selling system garners significantly less attention than its larger console cousins get." --http://www.gbstation.com/editorials/093099.html
"Does anybody still use those?" -- Slashdot reader yankeehack
yeah! how dare those pesky liberals try to pass on the community (hidden? I forget the economic term for this sort of thing) costs to the companies that benefit from it.
We need a corporate pollution tax. This is standard economics. What happens is that companies have to balance costs in order to provide competive products. So balance cost of labour against cost of more efficient manufacturing equipment. Most of these goods are priced by the market, just like the goods the company produces, so everyone wins. The environment is not, so it falls to the government to set the price of pollution.
If the government doesn't set a high enough price for pollution, the correct thing for companies to do is to switch to dirtier, and cheaper production processes.
So with that in mind, environment mania is nothing more than an attempt to correctly price an invaluable resource.
Johan
yet. so noone has had a chance to use them.