Wayne, DRAM's and Moore's law.
More PC's don't equal more DRAM's.
I remember when PC's came with 8 SIMM sockets. If you wanted 8 mBytes of DRAM you had to have 8 SIMM's with 64 DRAM's. (And when Win95 came out, there were a lot of upgrades to 16 mByte).
Looking at more recent history, anyone wanting 64 mB bought either four 16mB DIMM's, (with 32 DRAM's), or two 32mB DIMM's, (with 16 DRAM's).
Now basic systems with 32 mB require only one DIMM, (8 DRAM's. Probably the reason Micron is offering incentives to upgrade to 64 mB on new systems).
At the low price of 32 mB DRAM, I suspect this will be the entry level for some time, not good news for the suppliers.
And with the advent of ever increasing chip densities, (64/128/256 mb), I think we'll see the average number of DRAM's per system converge on 8 chips, the minimum needed for a system. A year from now 64 mB will be sufficient for most. (And a year from now 64 mb DIMM's will be selling for 32 mb prices).
The real dichotomy for the chip makers is that ever increasing densities has the effect of decreasing demand for chips, with lower pricing to maintain share..
JMHO's. |
