Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jdaasoc who wrote (53308)	9/14/2000 12:10:17 AM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

World DRAM Price] DRAM Prices Rise for Volume Users in Asia September 13, 2000 (TOKYO) -- DRAM chip prices for volume users are rising in Europe and Asia. According to a survey of worldwide DRAM prices conducted by ICIS-LOR, the 30-day (July 27 to Aug. 25) rolling average prices of 128Mb DRAMs (PC133, 16M x 8) for large-volume users remained unchanged in North America at US$15.82, while they rose 0.74 percent to US$16.16 in Europe and increased 4.17 percent to US$15.49 in Asia, compared to the previous week. Korean DRAM chip manufacturers are moving to post-DRAM chips, therefore, the rising trend hasn't urged them to go back to DRAMs, and not stopped them from producing flash memory or SRAMs either. On the other hand, the spot prices are continuing to go down. PC manufacturers seem to adjust their purchases of memory devices depending on prices. The recent declining trend in the spot prices, however, does not seem as bad as the oversupply as was seen in the end of February to the beginning of March, which recorded the most significant drop at more than 8 percent. As for memory modules, the spot prices for 128MB DIMMs (PC133) declined by 1.43 percent from the previous week to US$129.84 in North America, while they fell 1.36 percent to US$130.00 in Europe and declined 1.84 percent to US$130.11 in Asia. Table: 30-Day Rolling Averages of 128Mb DRAMs (PC133, 16M x 8) July 27-Aug. 25, 2000 (survey by ICIS-LOR)Area Contract price Week-on-week comparison North America US$15.82 0.00% Europe US$16.16 +0.74% Asia US$15.49 +4.17% *Week-on-week comparison is the comparison with the 30-day rolling averages of July 20-Aug. 18, 2000.

To: Jdaasoc who wrote (53308)	9/14/2000 12:56:41 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 93625

Hi Jdaasoc; RDRAM pricing & Re: "I believe, etc." There is a reason that I have to be so careful when talking about Japanese CPUs, memory controllers and chipsets. You undoubtedly didn't know that a lot of processors are designed in Japan for the home market (i.e. Japanese manufacturing companies only), and are never marketed outside their country, except already built into stuff like TVs. There is a language barrier that makes a lot of stuff going on over there happen without it ever getting reported here. That detail about RDRAM being used in an HDTV box, for instance. (I should mention that some of the Nvidia based DDR SDRAM graphics cards provide HDTV output.) Without the PR, no one would have known. I've used parts from Japan where my company was able to get them to export parts to us because of other connection, but it is still a pain. The data sheets are in a foreign language. Those parts never showed up in the usual searches, and were never sold to another US company, as far as I know. And why would a company brag about putting DDR into a set top box? So that they could make a big public scene and dare Rambus to sue them for royalties? Of course not. Nvidia didn't have a choice, every reviewer in the country instantly knew what was on the card just by looking at it. But TV sets and that kind of thing are not sold to reviewers who pry the heat sinks off the DRAM so they can publicize the markings on the internet. I have no idea what is going on in Japan without publicity, and that describes the embedded and ASIC market precisely. God knows what the companies that contract with Toshiba for chip production are making. I'm certain that lots of them include SDRAM interfaces, but I can't name a single one. Nor do I know if a company that hired Toshiba as a standard cell provider would end up paying royalties to Rambus. By the way, I expect that before the end of the year you will be reporting on DDR PC equipment in channel, and I look forward to hearing about it. Which reminds me, recently you made some comments about the pricing of RDRAM vs availability &c.: #reply-14245302. How's it look now? And is the sperling data accurate: RDRAM price adders over SDRAM. Weekly data from sperling, RIMM-800 vs PC133: 9/11/00 141% 9/04/00 140% 8/28/00 158% 8/21/00 157% 8/14/00 162% 8/07/00 151% 7/31/00 162% 7/24/00 161% 7/17/00 162% 7/10/00 174% 7/03/00 186% 6/26/00 193% 6/19/00 222% 6/12/00 234% 6/05/00 272% 5/29/00 295% 5/22/00 338% 5/15/00 333% 5/08/00 324% 5/01/00 313% 4/24/00 340% 4/17/00 351% 4/10/00 417% 4/03/00 495% 3/27/00 559% 3/20/00 591% 3/13/00 562% 3/06/00 514% 2/28/00 560% (derived from) members.home.com I still maintain that RDRAM is dead, dead, dead. To become the next mainstream memory, RDRAM has to get to a price adder over SDRAM of zero. While RDRAM was dropping in price quickly as it first came out, it seems to be having a bit of difficulty getting to the 50% level where I expect it to stabilize. Who knows? Maybe I was wrong, and RDRAM will never even get close to 50%. -- Carl