Memory prices at all time low

Memory pricing is at its lowest point in many years, making now the best possible time to upgrade systems. DRAM pricing has fallen a massive 67% since January, but with major manufacturers such as Hynix announcing cuts in production, prices are likely to start going up in the next few months.

"Users planning to upgrade the memory on their systems should do so now, while DRAM pricing is at an all-time low," says Colin Nish, sales and marketing manager at local memory manufacturer, Kalliba Technologies. "The DRAM market pricing is based purely on supply and demand and the worldwide demand was and is very slow. With the DRAM manufacturers capacities running at full speed this resulted in massive oversupply. However, when the DRAM manufacturers begin to cut their production, the demand/supply ratio will normalize and prices will start to rise."

According to global market researcher Dataquest, spot market pricing for a mainstream 128-Mbit memories device fell to less than $2 and even contract pricing has fallen below $3. At less than $3 each, the price of a DRAM is under the cost-of-production for most manufacturers. As a first step, many major manufacturers have put plans for the upgrading of existing production capacities on hold. The second, and more difficult, step is a co-ordinated cut in production.

Another factor influencing the market supply is that some manufacturers are starting to convert some of their fabrication plants over to the production of DDR SDRAM. Hynix has announced that it is increasing its DDR SDRAM production with its eye on a 50 per cent share of the market by the end of the year. Two of the chip maker`s single data rate SDRAM production lines at Inchon, South Korea will be converted to churn out DDR chips, starting later in the second half of 2001. This will impact the supply of SDRAM chips. If, however, DDR is to gain a meaningful market share, the price differential between SDRAM and DDR should come down to 5% - 10%. This is expected to occur towards the end of this year.

"There are many compelling reasons to upgrade your computer, including a 42% increase in PC performance when upgrading from 64MB to 128MB," says Bruce Murphy, memory product manager at Axiz. "In addition, there is the upcoming launch of Windows XP, which will require a minimum of 128MB SDRAM to run effectively. Those considering implementing this product when it launches in October should upgrade now to get the best price for their SDRAM."

"Without a doubt, the most cost-effective way to get increased performance from your systems is by upgrading RAM," agrees Ian Rayner, Kingston product manager at Axiz. "In particular, this price drop will certainly affect the price of servers, as memory is often a substantial portion of the cost. Also, upgrading personal devices such as PDAs has also become much cheaper as the price of flash memory has dropped dramatically."

Kalliba Technologies, ISO registered, has excellent stock availability through its distributor, AXiZ. Pre- and post-sales technical support is also available through AXiZ. More information on Kalliba Technologies can be found at www.kalliba.com.

With annual sales over $.1.6 billion in 2000, Kingston Technology is the world`s largest independent memory manufacturer. Kingston Technology offers a complete line of memory, flash memory and storage products. With strictly regulated ISO-registered facilities in the United States (ISO 9001), Ireland (ISO 9002), Malaysia (ISO 9002) and Taiwan (ISO 9002), Kingston Technology markets its products globally through an extensive world wide network of distributors, major reseller chains and independent dealers. More information about Kingston can be found at: www.kingston.com/europe.