DRAM output growth slows in November, but the worst may be over for DDR2
(to me looks like the chipset shortage really screwed up DDR2 migration)
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Esther Lam, DigiTimes.com, Taipei [Thursday 15 December 2005]
Global DRAM output grew a slight 2.7% in November to reach 704 million 256Mbit equivalent units, representing a 57% increase in monthly output from January of this year. However, the proportion of DRAM output devoted to DDR2 production dipped last month for only the second time this year, as DRAM makers adjusted to the slow adoption rates in the market.
Despite the penetration rate of DDR2 dropping to 35%, DRAMeXchange expects demand to pick up from late December as the Intel chipset shortage eases.
According to various reports, an Intel chipset shortage peaked in October, and Intel has begun sourcing chipsets from ATI Technologies in order to maintain its supply of entry-level DDR2 supporting motherboards, with supply ramping through the end of this year.
DRAMeXchange stated that it expects the DDR2 penetration rate in the OEM market to surpass 50% in the first quarter of 2006, although demand in the spot market will remain weak.
In the first half of next year, the DDR2 segment will also get a boost from the launch of AMD’s DDR2-supporting Socket M-2 processors. However, since AMD will ship a large proportion of its DDR2-supporting CPUs to PC OEMs, it will have a limited impact on demand in the spot market, DRAMeXchange reasoned.
Consumers have been skeptical of the performance of DDR2 compared with DDR, and memory module houses have remained conservative as well. Despite DDR2 currently being priced lower than comparative DDR parts, the related DDR2 production costs are higher, sources explained. |
