Comment on RAM prices soar, but popular Windows 11 apps are using more RAM due to Electron, Web components
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 days agoThe latest semiconductor manufacturer specializing in RAM is ChangXin Memory Technologies
As of 2019, CXMT had over 3,000 employees, and runs a fab with a 65,000 square meters clean room space. Over 70% of its employees are engineers working on various research and development related projects. CXMT uses its 10G1 process technology (aka 19 nm) to make 4 Gb (gigabit) and 8 Gb DDR4 memory chips. It has licensed intellectual property originally created by Qimonda.
So… whatever that costs.
towerful@programming.dev 4 days ago
It must take so much R&D to achieve anything remotely comparable to what Samsung, Micron (/Crucial… RIP) and SK Hynix can produce.
Fingers crossed they can either undercut the 3(now 2) big producers, which is doubtful. But hopefully they can help reduce the maximum price that decent memory can inflate to. Because at some point a medium sized customer is gonna get fed up of the Samsung/micron/skHynix bullshit, and custom order the ram they need, and such a smaller producer will provide a much better service for a similar price
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 days ago
The miracle of the Chinese Economy (and, really, all the BRICS countries) has been their willingness to educate and industrialize their population.
Yeah, it takes a ton of R&D, but when you’ve got 1.4B people you’re going to sift out a few who can get the job done. India’s Tata is already building their own semiconductor facilities. Brazil’s semiconductor sector has been struggling to break into the global market for… decades. Russia’s so sanctioned that they’ve got no choice but to go in-house. South Africa is finally building industrial facilities to match their role in the raw materials supply chain.
I would suspect this crunch in the global market is going to incentivize a ton of international investment in manufacturing entirely to meet domestic demand. And heaven help us all if there’s an actual flashpoint in the Pacific Rim, because that’ll shut down the transit that companies like TSM and Broadcomm need to produce at current scales.
I just wouldn’t hold my breath, especially under the current protectionist political environment. You’re not going to be buying outside of the US sphere of influence any time soon.
towerful@programming.dev 3 days ago
Pretty sure all ram manufacturers are Korean? I guess China puts chips on PCBs, maybe? But South Korea has the knowledge . And it had met domestic demand. RAM prices have been acceptable for many many years.
It’s the AI sector that is inflating demand (maybe by circular investment and contracts).
So, I don’t see anyone investing 10 years into the future to make ddr6 ram where their business plan relies on current trends.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Micron is American, headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Western Digital is based in San Jose, California. Kioxia (formerly a department of Toshiba) is Japanese.
Only Samsung and SK Hynix are Korean.