To: Steve Lewis who wrote (4876 ) 11/21/1997 6:34:00 PM From: Rob S. Read Replies (1) | Respond to
IDT's IR department confirmed my understanding that SRAM pricing and most other product categories remain firm. While a few parts, mostly highly competitive commodity types, may be continuing to edge down a bit, other parts, such as specialty memories used in high-end communications and networking equipment, are edging modestly up. Inventory levels are low on most ICs. Overal the climate appears quite healthy leading into the normally robust 4th quarter. Several industry forecastes show greater growth over the next few quarters than the industry has seen for about 3 years. Overal indications for the industry is very good. The fact that DRAM prices have continued down the pricing curve, following the dictates of Moore's Law, has many people running scared thinking that overal prices are retreating. Perhaps to the contrary - lower DRAM prices are partly what make sub $1,000 or even sub $500 PCs/NCs and lower prices for other products posible and that creates a whole new flood of demand and industry growth that spurs consumption for other parts. Remember when (maybe 2 years ago) 32 MB of RAM cost a few hundred dollars?
