June 23, 2005
(IDG News Service)
Samsung Electronics Co. is ramping up production of 1Gbit Dynamic RAM (DRAM) chips to help them become the industry's mainstream computer memory chip as soon as possible, the company said Thursday.
The Seoul, South Korea-based company is the world's largest memory chip maker and accounts for more than a quarter of all DRAM produced globally, giving it the power to help determine future chip generations. If it succeeds in swaying the market to accept 1Gbit DRAM earlier than anticipated, the change would directly affect many PC buyers.
Swaying the market may not be easy, however. The most widely used DRAM today is 256Mbit, one-fourth of the capacity Samsung is proposing. Analysts widely expect the next mainstream DRAM to be 512Mbit. Chips of that capacity are expected to move into the mainstream later this year and remain there well into 2006, according to DRAMeXchange, an online clearinghouse for memory chips.
Still, Samsung could upset that timetable with its 1Gbit chips if it can produce them in sufficient quantities to cause prices to fall.
"We work a little faster than the market trend," said Sung Hae Park, a Samsung spokeswoman. The company can make more money by introducing products earlier, since people are usually willing to pay more for them. Samsung is initially targeting servers and high-end PCs with the 1Gbit chips, which come in double data rate or DDR2 specifications, running at 400 MHz and 533 MHz.
Higher-capacity DRAM chips could help end users, since PC makers normally provide the minimum DRAM necessary to ensure smooth operation of a computer. More DRAM can boost performance, especially for larger software applications or when users run multiple programs at the same time.
Samsung said it sent samples of the 1Gbit chips to customers months ago so they could test them and work them into new system designs.
The company has just started mass-producing the higher-capacity chips using an advanced 90-nanometer manufacturing technology, which helps to lower power consumption, make chips less prone to overheating and provide better overall performance, Samsung said in a statement. The reference to nanometers refers to the average feature size on a chip. One nanometer is one billionth of a meter.