Hynix leaves DRAM market spotless
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Falling prices causes memory loss Hynix, the Korean computer memory maker, is fleeing the DRAM spot market - because prices are too low. That's not the spin the company is putting on the decision, telling Reuters that it wants to "enhance our flexibility and strengthen our position in the contract market".â¦
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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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German memory chip giant Qimonda AG on Thursday announced a five-year pact to develop several types of non-volatile memory technologies with Macronix International, known for the memory chips it supplies to Nintendo&#39;s popular Wii game consoles.Non-volatile memory, such as flash memory chips, retains data after power has been shut off. Volatile memory, such as DRAM (Dynamic RAM), loses data when its power source is turned off.Qimonda will bring its expertise in chip engineering and manufacturing to the partnership, while Macronix will add its flash memory know-how, according to the statement.Projects related to the pact will take place at Qimonda&#39;s facilities in Dresden, Germany. Macronix is a Taiwanese company.Costs will be split between the two companies, but Qimonda did not offer an estimate for the possible size of the investment.
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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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Company says PRAM will replace NOR memory used in mobile phones.
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Reaction to AMD acquisition? Investors who argue that AMD should sell off its ATI discrete graphics operation will take heart from market research published today which shows the chip maker's GPU division saw its market share fall in all segments during Q3.â¦
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German DRAM (dynamic RAM) maker Qimonda put the construction of an advanced semiconductor factory in Singapore on hold and slashed its planned capital spending for 2008 after reporting a steep first-quarter loss.The company blamed a 40 percent&#160;drop in DRAM prices&#160;for a &#8364;598 million ($866.3 million) net loss in its fiscal first quarter, which ended Dec. 31. Qimonda&#39;s sales reached just &#8364;513 million during the period, down 56 percent from the &#8364;1.17 billion in sales it reported one year earlier.A massive 73 percent drop in DRAM prices over the course of last year has memory chip makers scurrying to realign their business strategies. On Tuesday, Qimonda&#39;s joint venture partner, Nanya Technology, and their joint venture,&#160;Inotera Memories, both posted losses and announced&#160;lower spending&#160;on new production lines for 2008.Qimonda had much the same to say. The company cut its proposed capital spending for fiscal 2008 by &#8364;250 million down to a range of &#8364;400 million to &#8364;500 million. Due to the reduction, the construction of a new 300-millimeter (12-inch) memory chip plant in Singapore has been put on hold, Qimonda said in a statement.The DRAM market took a turn south last year as companies built too many new factories and demand for new PCs armed with Windows Vista failed to meet expectations. The resulting glut sent DRAM chip prices tumbling.The contract price of 1Gb DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM 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. The chips were $3 each at the start of October, when the current price slump hit.Qimonda noted the 40 percent decline in the October to December period was one of the strongest declines ever, and that even previously announced measures to cope with the price slide could not compensate for the difficult market environment.The company also said it is already reassessing its outsourcing strategy. Qimonda has worked with several partners in Asia to contract manufacture its chips and in technology transfer schemes aimed at sharing the cost of research and development. These partners include Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) of China, as well as Nanya Technology and Winbond Electronics of Taiwan.&#160;
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U.S. consumers don't want to pay for low-power, high-performance chip.
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The good news is that it's going to get better. The bad news is that it's going to get worse first. That pretty much sums up the price swings in the market for the commodity computer memory chips known as Dynamic Random Access Memory, or DRAM.
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(InfoWorld) - Samsung Electronics held onto its title as the world's largest producer of DRAMÂ memory chips in 2006 despite a late charge by Hynix Semiconductor, according to a study released Thursday. Hynix leapfrogged Qimonda, jumping into second place by posting a 31 percent increase in DRAM bit shipments from the third to fourth quarter, while the market as a whole grew by only 14 percent in that time, according to iSuppli. In 2006, Samsung claimed DRAM revenues of $9.5 billion, 28 percent of the entire $33.9 billion market, iSuppli said. Hynix followed with 16.6 percent market share, leading Qimonda's 15.9 percent, Micron's 11 percent, and Elpida's 10.4 percent. All other producers were in single digits. Hardware vendors use DRAM semiconductor memory in a vast range of products, including PCs, printers, hard disk drives, mobile phones, digital cameras, televisions, and game consoles. Although demand will keep growing, iSuppli says slumping prices in 2007 will take the wind out of those sails, pushing revenue down despite rising sales. The vendors are more optimistic. Qimonda predicts that demand could rise in 2007 because of Microsoft's launch of its newÂ Windows Vista OS as well as other communication and consumer applications, according to the company's Jan. 23 earnings report. Likewise, Samsung predicts that a strong consumer electronics market will push demand for DRAM used in 2.5G and 3G handsets and in game consoles. DRAM vendors also hope to continue momentum by relying on technology advances, planning to shrink their chip architecture from 90 nanometers to 80nm and below in the short term and toÂ upgrade from current DDR2 design to DDR3 in coming years. Despite its dominant position, Samsung suffered in December asÂ one of its executives agreed to serve jail time and pay a large fineÂ as the result of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into price-fixing practices in the industry. The plea was the fifth from a Samsung executive and marked the 18th person from four vendors indicted since December 2003. The other companies charged were Hynix, Elpida, and Infineon (which has since spun off its DRAM division as Qimonda). Â
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XenExpress OEM Edition for servers The hype for virtualization may be reaching a fever pitch, but market penetration remains at a high-ball figure of only about 7 per cent. The aim now falls squarely on selling in volume, so it's not a surprise to see the market eyeballing OEM vendors.â¦
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Although servers based on AMD's Barcelona chip are on display at Computex, details of the quad-core chips are not available.
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This $50 card can hold four CompactFlash cards configured in a RAID array--but cards aren't included in that price.
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Stock fails HA test too The poor SCO Group can't get much right these days, including keeping its high availability clusters highly available.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Struggling memory chip vendors may see a ray of hope in the near future as prices for DRAMÂ chips stoppedÂ their long slideÂ during the first half of July, according to a report released Tuesday. However, that pause is likely to be brief as DRAM suppliers still have too much inventory in their warehouses, said the report from iSuppli. As vendors like SamsungÂ and Hynix SemiconductorÂ seek extra revenue by selling off those inventories, prices could drop again, said iSuppli analyst Nam Hyung Kim. Therefore, Kim upgraded his rating of the short-term DRAM market only from "negative" to "neutral," saying he is not yet ready to declare a recovery in that sector. Falling DRAM pricesÂ help keep prices low for consumer electronics like PCs, MP3 music players and digital cameras. But it puts big pressure on chip makers to find new revenue. For example, in April Samsung blamed tumbling DRAM prices for helping toÂ push its net profit down 15 percentÂ in the first quarter of 2007, compared to the same period last year. In recent years, some vendors have broken the law in that effort, leading to price-fixing convictions by the U.S. Department of Justice against Samsung and Hynix, as well as their competitors Infineon Technologies, Elpida Memory, and Mitsubishi Electric. Price collusion by DRAM vendors can also harm business computer buyers, according toÂ a lawsuit filed in May against Hynix by Sun. Sun claims the South Korean company inflated prices for its DRAM chips, leading to artificially high prices for Sun servers and storage systems. Some chip vendors are trying to improve their profits by reducing their DRAM production in favor of NAND flash, the memory technology used in popular items like Apple's iPod music players and iPhone smartphone. That transition will help to keep the DRAM market strong in the third quarter of 2007 by avoiding a surplus, Kim said. But even the NAND market will begin to droop in the second half of 2007, as memory manufacturers rush into that sector and force another price decline, he predicted.
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SEOUL, South Korea - Hynix Semiconductor Inc., formerly Hyundai Electronics, is alleged to have committed an accounting miss-statement of nearly 2 trillion won (about US$1.
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SEOUL: South Korean prosecutors said that Hynix Semiconductor is being investigated in connection with an alleged accounting fraud involving 1.7 billion dollars.