Hynix sees DRAM rebound in 2008
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South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc  , the world's second-biggest maker of memory chips,  anticipates a rebound in its key computer chip market in the  second quarter of this year, its chief executive said on  Tuesday.
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Infineon and ProMOS have finally ended a long running argument over licensing for DRAM chips. The two were part of a joint venture with Mosel Vitelic which ran from 1996.
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The 1Gb DRAM (dynamic RAM) chip has replaced 512Gb DRAM as the mainstream memory capacity in the PC industry as of October, according to DRAMeXchange, a sign most PCs coming off production lines can now use Microsoft&#39;s Vista OS.All of the premium versions of Vista require&#160;more DRAM per PC&#160;to ensure smooth operation of the OS, which is more complex and requires more hardware than its predecessor, XP.The changeover in the DRAM market has taken longer than many companies expected. Several DRAM makers&#160;built new factories in anticipation&#160;Vista would take the PC market by storm this year and antiquate XP. That hasn&#39;t happened. Instead, the adoption of the new OS is moving along at a steady pace, albeit&#160;slower than the DRAM industry expected.The heavy investment in DRAM factories, however, has caused a massive oversupply.&#160;Prices of most DRAM chips have fallen&#160;by over 70 percent so far this year, and are currently near or below the cost of production for most companies.The contract price of 1Gb, DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM chips that run at 667MHz fell 12.5 percent from two weeks ago to $2.63 each, a new low for this year according to DRAMeXchange, which runs an online trading site for the chips. The most recent DRAM slump hit in early October, as prices fell by 25 percent. Analysts said the market may not turn around until late next year, and possibly later if companies keep building new production lines.&quot;We do not expect memory chip makers to show any improvement in profitability at least until [the second half of 2008] unless there is stabilization or a recovery in pricing,&quot; said Warren Lau, chip industry analyst at Macquarie Research.Samsung Electronics already increased its production line spending plans 23 percent this year, he said, and the aggressive stance will likely cause rivals such as Elpida Memory and Hynix Semiconductor&#160;to follow suit so they can protect or increase their DRAM market share.Increased spending amid a chip glut should keep DRAM cheap for a while. Market prices normally take about a month to filter down to users, according to one DRAMeXchange analyst, and users can benefit from lower prices in a few ways. PC vendors often increase the amount of DRAM per computer when prices are low, or offer additional DRAM as an incentive to buy a new PC. Also, the price of DRAM modules found in stores will fall as retailers clear out their older, more expensive inventory.Contract DRAM prices are renegotiated every two weeks between DRAM makers and PC vendors such as Hewlett-Packard&#160;and Dell. Around 80 percent of all DRAM is sold by contract, while the rest is sold on a spot market similar to commodities trading in oil and gold.&#160;
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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&#160;by Qimonda and Nanya Technology, started pilot production of 1Gb DDR3 DRAM this year, and plans to have the chips in mass production by the third quarter to meet growing demand.&quot;There is already demand for DDR3, and it will increase as the year goes on,&quot; 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&#39;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 1Gb DDR2 chips that run at 667MHz fell to $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&#39;t make money with&#160;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.
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(InfoWorld) - After a much longer than expected delay, DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) has finally taken over as the most popular memory chip used in PCs. The crossover to DDR2 from the previous mainstream chip, DDR-400 (double data rate, 400 megahertz) took place this week on both the spot DRAM market and the contract market, industry researcher DRAMeXchange Technology said Wednesday. It's been a long time coming. The chipsÂ entered the market far later than expected, mainly due to heat problems. In fact, DDR-400 , which has reigned as industry leader for the past few years, was supposed to be a stop-gap chip with such a short life span that some companies hadn't even planned to support it with a chip set. But when DDR-400 showed up on Intel's product road map in late 2002, component makers began to move forward on DDR-400, and put off developing compatible parts for DDR2. Intel microprocessors power around 80 percent of all PCs, making an Intel stamp of approval vital to computer industry parts makers. Advanced Micro DevicesÂ (AMD) helped further put off demand for DDR2 this year. The company waited until the middle of the year toÂ launch its first desktop and laptop processors that support DDR2Â because it didn't think initial versions of the chip added substantial performance benefits to AMD processor-based systems, yet commanded a higher price. The first DDR2 chips ran at 400MHz and then 533MHz, but AMD waited until DDR2 chips running at 667MHz reached mass production levels, which lowered price and ensured a plentiful supply. Currently, a wide range of Intel and AMD systems support DDR2. DRAMeXchange noted Wednesday that prices may become an issue again for DDR2. Prices for the chips rose 8.8 percent last week, compared to the previous week, the company said, due to strong demand for PCs. The market researcher expects prices to remain strong throughout September, the traditional time when back-to-school PC buying increases buying activity in the DRAM market. Â
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Dynamic RAM is enjoying a boost in mobile devices, which are hungry for small, cool, power-efficient chips.
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Upcoming chips will lead to relatively inexpensive hardware, company says.
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By AME Info, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates  Feb. 15--IBM MEMORY BREAKTHROUGH: IMB says its embedded dynamic random  access memory, or eDRAM, will effectively double microprocessor performance  while remaining power efficient, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
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Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), China&#39;s largest chip maker, fell short of its bid to turn a profit in 2007, ending the year with a $40 million loss. But that&#160;won&#39;t stop the company from expanding in 2008.SMIC saw revenue of $1.5 billion during 2007, an increase of 5.8 percent over the previous year. But higher sales weren&#39;t enough to offset a slide in DRAM prices and the company ended the year with a loss, albeit one that was slightly narrower than the $44.1 million loss recorded by the company in 2006.SMIC turned in a fourth-quarter loss of $22.2 million on revenue of $395.3 million. By comparison, the company reported a profit of $143,000 for the fourth quarter of 2006, thanks to an exceptional one-time gain from the sale of used equipment.Once seen as a potential rival to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world&#39;s largest contract chip maker,&#160;SMIC has struggled to turn a profit. Part of the problem is that, as the company built a series of new chip plants in China, it turned to DRAM companies for orders in a bid to fill these production lines. But DRAM is a brutal business with razor-thin margins and&#160;recent declines in memory prices&#160;have hurt SMIC&#39;s bottom line.SMIC is trying to wean itself off DRAM as a source of revenue, but the switch to production of more logic chips, which generally command higher prices and have better margins, hasn&#39;t happened fast enough to pull the chip maker out of the red.DRAM represented 23.6 percent of SMIC&#39;s revenue during the fourth quarter, compared to 38.6 percent during the same period last year. By comparison, logic chips represented a greater percentage of SMIC&#39;s fourth-quarter revenue, rising from 57.4 percent in 2006 to 67.4 percent last year.Despite reporting another annual loss, SMIC continues to expand. The company announced plans to build a 200-millimeter production line and a 300-millimeter fabrication plant in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city that lies next to Hong Kong. Construction will begin during the first half of 2008, the company said.
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(InfoWorld) - The global chip market is suffering from falling prices in microprocessors and memory chips, bad news for companies but great for users. Steep declines in DRAM (dynamic RAM) for PCs and NAND flash memory, used in a variety of gadgets including digital cameras and iPods, as well as microprocessors prompted the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) to slash its global sales forecast for this year to US$252 billion, just 1.8 percent growth compared to last year. The previous estimate called for sales growth of 10 percent this year. Sales of gadgets themselves are on track to meet forecasts, however, SIA said. Chip shipments overall remain healthy, as does end-user demand. But prices continue to fall for a variety of reasons, including a glut in the memory market and a price war between Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in microprocessors. "End markets continue to be strong, with consumers realizing major benefits from lower chip prices coupled with ever-increasing performance and functionality from advances in chip technology. Despite a forecast of slower growth, we expect that global sales of microchips will surpass last yearâs record level," the SIA said in a statement on Wednesday. Intel and AMD have been battling each other through price reductions for over a year now, and reports indicate that Intel will cut prices on some microprocessors again in late July. The price war has been good to consumers, delivering more technically advanced microprocessors at a lower cost. Microprocessors are generally the most expensive chip inside a PC. The DRAM market has been hit the worst. The price of mainstream 512M-bit second-generation double data rate (DDR2) DRAM that runs at 667MHz has plunged 72 percent so far this year to US$1.79 per chip, according to DRAMeXchange Technology Inc., a Taiwanese clearinghouse for the chips. The market research division of the company has noted that the chips appear to be bottoming out, and that prices could tick up a bit later this month. DRAM price reductions for users normally come a few weeks or a month after the spot DRAM market falls. NAND Flash memory has suffered a similar fate as DRAM, but not quite as steep a decline. A glut of the chips early in the year has been wiped out by memory makers, which tweaked production lines to make more DRAM instead of NAND flash. Prices of 8G byte NAND has fallen 18 percent his year to US$9.26, according to DRAMeXchange, while the 4G byte capacity has dropped nearly 15 percent to US$5.69. The SIA expects PC and mobile phone sales to rise 10 percent each this year. Mobile phone sales may give chips a bigger boost, however, because users are buying more 3G (third generation communications) handsets, which contain more chips than older phones. Sales of personal media players and digital music players are expected to grow by more than 20 percent this year, SIA said, but noted that price competition in the market will likely keep NAND flash chip prices tame. The SIA report followsÂ a similar estimation of the global chip industry by Gartner. A few weeks ago, the market researcher lowered its forecast to just 2.5 percent growth to US$269.2 billion this year, down from an earlier estimate of 6.4 percent. Â ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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Troubled Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the worldâs fourth-largest maker of memory chips last year, could be fined for shoddy accounting between 1999-2003, South Koreaâs financial regulator said on Monday.
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Rambus Inc. on Thursday said  e-mails from Micron Technology Inc. and Hynix Semiconductor  (000660.KS) support its claims that the rival memory chip  makers conspired to fix prices, sending its shares up 18.5  percent.
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The company plans to present a paper this week outlining a new type of memory that could help boost processor performance.
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Dual-core version won't be available until 2006, chip maker says.
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(InfoWorld) - Samsung Electronics, the world's largest DRAM (dynamic RAM) maker, agreed to pay $90 million in a DRAM price fixing suit raised by a group of U.S. state governments, the first company named in the suit to reach such an accord. Samsung also agreed to assist the states in resolving price-fixing charges against other defendants named in the suit, the Office of the New York State Attorney General said in a statement on Tuesday. The agreement ends the case against Samsung. TheÂ lawsuit was filed last JulyÂ by New York and 40 other U.S. states in a joint antitrust effort against several DRAM (dynamic RAM) makers over alleged price-fixing, adding to industry woes amid an ongoing federal investigation that has already led to $731 million in fines. They alleged the companies violated antitrust laws and harmed consumers by conspiring to fix prices through artificial supply restraints, dividing markets among themselves and rigging bids on DRAM contracts during a four year period between 1998 and 2002. The price fixing scheme caused computer makers such as Apple and DellÂ to pay more for DRAM than they would have in a competitive market, the suit alleged, and the costs were then passed on to consumers. The Samsung settlement will be used to benefit victims of high DRAM prices, with $80 million going to consumers and other victims, and $10 million being paid out to state and local governments. New York's attorney general said the state's specific share of the settlement will be determined in the future. Samsung's Seoul office declined to comment on the settlement, saying its U.S. subsidiary was handling all issues regarding the case. Hynix Semiconductor, another company named in the suit, said it is too early to tell what impact the Samsung deal may have on the case. "We're still looking into the matter. We haven't decided anything yet," said Kim Ah-Young, a Hynix representative. The accord with Samsung is subject to approval by the federal court in San Francisco. The litigation will continue against other DRAM makers named in the suit, including U.S.-based Micron Technology, Infineon Technologies of Germany, South Korea's Hynix, Japan's Elpida Memory and NEC Electronics America, Taiwan's Mosel Vitelic and Nanya TechnologyÂ as well as their U.S. subsidiaries. The case by the states started after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation had already led to several guilty pleas, which resulted in millions of dollars in fines and jail time for a dozen individuals from four companies. In late 2005,Â Samsung was ordered to payÂ a $300 million criminal fine in the DOJ case, while South Korean rivalÂ Hynix Semiconductor agreed to payÂ $185 million. Infineon Technologies, of Germany, wasÂ first to pay a fineÂ of $160 million, in late 2004. Earlier last year, Japan'sÂ Elpida Memory agreed to plead guiltyÂ and pay a $84 million fine.
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SEOUL (Dow Jones)--South Korea&#39;s Hynix Semiconductor Inc. (000660.SE) Monday posted sharply higher net profit for the third quarter, helped by strong chip prices - making
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One of the world's largest DRAM makers plans to invest $525.3 million on two chip factories in Asia.