Memory Makers Expect Rise in DDR3 Demand

[Capper]

The DRAM (dynamic RAM) chip next in line to become mainstream for PC users, DDR3 (double data rate, third generation) will start to find its place in significantly more PCs by the third quarter of this year, Taiwanese DRAM executives said Tuesday.
Inotera Memories, a DRAM joint venture by Qimonda and Nanya Technology, started pilot production of 1G-bit DDR3 DRAM this year, and plans to have the chips in mass production by the third quarter to meet growing demand.
"There is already demand for DDR3, and it will increase as the year goes on," said Charles Kau, president of Inotera, during a news conference in Kuei Shan, Taiwan.
Pai Pei-lin, a vice president at Nanya Technology, forecast that 30 percent of DRAM demand in the fourth quarter will be for DDR3.
That's a significant share of the DRAM market, and indicates the heyday for DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) may be nearing an end. DDR2 has been the main variety of DRAM used in PCs and laptops for the past few years. DDR3 is an incremental improvement over DDR2, offering users faster speeds, lower power consumption and higher bandwidth.
Some companies are already shipping DDR3 memory, including Samsung Electronics, but the chips are only going into a small portion of PCs currently rolling off production lines.
The current DRAM glut is changing that. For the last year, DRAM makers have been suffering from falling prices for the chips they make, and most companies will likely post a loss for the fourth quarter, when DRAM prices fell off a cliff.
The contract price of 1G-bit DDR2 chips that run at 667MHz fell to US$1.81 each as of Jan. 21, according to DRAMeXchange Technology, which operates a clearinghouse for the chips. Prices of the chips were at $3 at the start of October, when the current price slump hit.
Most companies can't make money with DDR2 prices so low. On Tuesday, Inotera Memories reported an NT$3.7 billion (US$114.3 million) loss for the fourth quarter of 2007. Nanya Technology reported an even worse loss of NT$8.2 billion for the same time period.
For users, the good news is that during chip gluts, DRAM makers often try to rush new technology to the market in a bid to increase sales of higher margin products. That means DDR3 may arrive sooner than it might have and at a lower price to boot.

Memory Makers Expect Rise in DDR3 Demand

[screwballl]

this is a generalized "Miss Cleo" type of prediction...
hmmmm
Intel is leading the market and sells the most Processors, most of the new boards for the Intel chips use DDR3, so of course DDR3 will have a much larger market share by years end... and with AMD making the move to DDR3 in the near future.. that expands more on the same line of thinking

[Capper]

Thank you Captain Obvious......

[screwballl]

hey, you posted it, I just pointed it out

[Capper]

I posted a news item for discussion......AMD will be moving to DDR3 as well, and a vast majority of INTEL users are still using DDR2 based systems....so its a LITTLE more complex than a "INTEL sells more processors, so of course DDR3 is going to sell more" type thing

[gvblake22]

I envision a transition similar to the one from DDR to DDR2. DDR3 will be expensive and without ideal performance (over DDR2) for a while. Then AMD will have a DDR3 platform and Intel will have the majority of their product line DDR3. That's when prices will drop on the faster parts and more users will start making the switch. It's obviously going to happen, but it will be prices that determine when, not Intel or AMD.

[PTRMAN]

DDR3 will happen, just needs to come down in price.

[Zambini]

Don't new & high end gfx cards like the 8800 and Radeon HD series use GDDR3 too (as well as not-50 billion dollar-cards)? So won't that automatically increase as well? I noticed that article didn't mention video cards.

[PTRMAN]

Sure they can - I'm using DDR2 w/8800GTX

[screwballl]

GDDR 2 3 and 4 are completely different than DDR2 and 3