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New PCs To Have Much More RAM
(07/21/97; 8:58 a.m. EDT)
By Tom Davey, InformationWeek
A drop in memory prices due to excess capacity -- coupled with an
increase in NT use and the Internet -- is leading to an increase in the
amount of memory shipping in desktop PCs in the next year, said
manufacturers and analysts.
A generation of 64-Mbit DRAM, the chips in a memory module, will soon
begin replacing the 16-Mbit chips in desktop PCs, freeing space for
memory upgrades. Analysts said the falling price of PC memory hasn't hit
bottom. "We're still in a very volatile environment," said Mario
Morales, manager of semiconductor research for International Data Corp.
in Mountain View, Calif. "We expect prices to decline through the next
two years."
The average price to PC makers for 1 Mbyte of memory has dropped from
$24.96 in 1995 to $8.76 in 1996 to $4.28 this year, saids Morales. He
expects it to dip to $3.04 next year and $2.53 in 1999.
For acceptable performance, NT on the desktop requires at least 32
Mbytes of memory. Add security and other features, Morales said, and
users can consume 64 Mbytes. The average desktop ships from the factory
with about 30 Mbytes of memory. A year from now, he said, that figure
should jump to 41 Mbytes.
Most new PCs should include 64-Mbit DRAM starting in the fourth quarter,
said Ted Franceschi, VP of the standard products division at Toshiba
America Electronic Components. Morales said that he expects most of the
transition to occur in the second quarter of 1998.
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