DRAMs
Low-power DRAMs inch towards commoditization
There is a big difference between DRAMs that are used in a PC and those used in most tablets. Most tablets are using a low-power DRAM, which is considered a specialty type of memory that is less impacted by supply and demand.
These DRAMs use different die andmanufacturing
processes and exhibit diversemarket dynamics than commodity DRAMs, according to industry players.
Going green
Samsung has developed a 1-gigabit wide I/Omobile DRAMusing 50-nanometer class process technology, which can transmit data at 12.8 GB/s, increasing the bandwidth ofmobile DDR DRAMeightfold while reducing power consumption by about 87 percent
Historically,mobile DRAMhas been a very build-to-order
product, said Howard. DRAMmanufacturers will build low-power DRAMbased on known demand and fill the remainder with PC DRAMproduction hoping someone will buy it, he explained.
"Commodity pricing [for PC DRAM] is verymuch driven by pure
supply and demand, whereasmobile DRAMpricing is impacted more bymanufacturers shrinking die and cutting costs in other areas so they are able tomanufacturemore cheaply quarter on quarter," Howard said. As a result,mobile DRAMtends to adopt a five to seven percent quarter-on-quarter price decline; it's a different pricing dynamic, he added.
Howard expects thatmobile DRAMs will becomemore
commodity like because the outlets formobile are increasing, which include both smart phones and tablets. "You got a bigger demand base out there and as soon as it gets too big, it gets a lot more volatile," Howard.
Combine this with a lotmoremanufacturers getting intomobile
DRAM, primarily Taiwanese suppliers and themarket becomes more volatile. "On the supply side, any time you increase the number of players, the volatility goes up by an order of magnitude, said Howard.
"Another component is that you have some of themodule guys
like the Kingstons of the world that have historicallymade PC modules getting intomobile DRAMand I think that will further commoditize the products," said Howard.
"That's not to say this is a 2011 phenomenon and by the end of
yearmobile DRAMwill swing wildly to a commodity DRAM, but I think it will adopt commodity type behaviors as wemove through the next two to three years," Howard suggested.
20 |March 2011
Similar to other semiconductor sectors, DRAMmanufacturers are working to cut power consumption as the world strives to become more energy efficient. For example, market leader Samsung has been driving the market towards its "GreenMemory" technology, which delivers
very high density dual-inline memory modules (DIMMs) at very low voltages.
"The way the server architecture is evolving is that they need
more density at amuch lower voltage range so Samsung has been driving a very aggressive path toward ultra-low voltage and a very high density DIMM," said Sylvie Kadivar, director, Strategic DRAM Marketing at Samsung Semiconductor, Inc., San Jose, Calif.
"The other thing to keep inmind is not only do they need
performance, they also need to ensure that the power consumption continues to get smaller because the overall amount of power required to fuel these data centers is a large number and a huge cost and huge overhead."
"Today, these data centers are using our technology that runs
at 1.35 volts and also at process geometries that are ahead of everyone. In full manufacturing, we have the 40nm class and made announcements on our next generation," said Kadivar. "What this means for the data center is very good total cost of ownership (TCO). So a return on investment from the perspective of purchasing the right solution that not only addresses server power consumption but also the entire infrastructure."
"Not only do you get the higher performance, you're getting
it at an even lower power consumption than the predecessor," added Kadivar.
"We'remore focused on bringingmore low-power green
solutions to our customers regardless of application because it is necessary in all segments," said Samsung's Pablo Temprano, director,Memory ProductMarketing.
www.electronics-sourcing.com
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