Micron Technology hosted its earnings call on September 29, and its outlook wasn’t as bad as formerly expected.
In August the company’s CFO warned that, although Micron’s fourth fiscal quarter (its current quarter, running from June – August) would come close to the guided figures, there was reason to Continue reading “Micron Earnings: Not So Bad After All”
During Intel’s latest earnings announcement the company provided information to indicate that 3D XPoint, which Intel sells under the name “Optane”, may have finally reached break-even: It may no longer be selling at a loss.
How would The Memory Guy know? Well, in fact, I don’t, but I can make an informed guess.
The chart below shows Continue reading “Did 3D XPoint Costs Reach Break-Even?”
In a May 15 press release SIA president & CEO John Neuffer said something that definitely bears repeating.
His statement was the Semiconductor Industry Association’s response to new US Department of Commerce rule changes designed to stop: “Huawei’s efforts to undermine US export controls.”
Recall that the SIA is the Continue reading “SIA CEO’s Priceless Comment”
The Memory Guy is pleased to announce the release of a new report co-authored by Objective Analysis and Coughlin Associates named: Emerging Memories Find Their Direction. In this report we show that emerging memories, MRAM, ReRAM, 3D XPoint, and other technologies are well on their way to reach $36 billion of combined revenues by 2030.
The report provides invaluable guidance to Continue reading “Emerging Memory Market to Hit $36 Billion by 2030”
A couple of weeks ago NAND flash start-up YMTC announced the production release of its 128-layer 1.33 terabit QLC NAND flash chip. According to a DigiTimes article about the chip the company plans to claim a share of 8% of the global NAND flash market in 2021.
A number of my clients asked The Memory Guy about this, since YMTC doesn’t yet seem Continue reading “Can YMTC Really Win 8% of 2021’s NAND Flash Market?”
Forecasting the memory market can be quite daunting unless you use the appropriate tools, then it becomes enormously simple. Many of my clients ask The Memory Guy how it is that I am able to come up with such consistently-acurate forecasts in a seemingly-unpredictable market. My answer is always that I use the Smith Chart. This chart is a nomogram, presented in an angular/logarithmic format (as opposed to Continue reading “Forecasting with Smith Charts”
About a year ago a rumor was circulating that Samsung was unable to yield its sub-20nm products without using EUV for the finer processes. Since The Memory Guy doesn’t traffic in rumors I did not publish anything about this rumor at the time.
On March 25 the company verified the rumor, though, by issuing a statement that: “Samsung is the first to adopt EUV in DRAM production.” I found it interesting that the company turned something that was Continue reading “Samsung Admits to Needing EUV for Sub-20nm Nodes”
Today is March 16, 2020, and the US stock market is still trying to understand what is happening with the global Coronavirus Pandemic, having lost nearly 20% of its value over the past week. Cooling-off periods (also called “Circuit Breakers”) automatically stopped overheated trading three times today, and numerous other times last week.
Market indexes fell sharply, as is evident in the following chart from Google Finance which shows Continue reading “COVID-19’s Impact on the Semiconductor Market”
Everyone knows that DRAM prices have been in a collapse since early this year, but last week DRAM prices hit a historic low point on the spot market. Based on data the Memory Guy collected from spot-price source InSpectrum, the lowest spot price per gigabyte for branded DRAM reached $2.59 last week. This is lower than the prior low of $2.62 last July, which equaled an earlier $2.62 record set in June, 2016. See the figure Continue reading “DRAM Prices Hit Historic Low”
The Memory Guy will be speaking at SEMICON West. Perhaps I will meet one or more readers there.
My presentation is Monday, July 8, at 3:55-4:25 in the 2019 SEMI Market Symposium. I will be one of eight speakers who will provide our outlooks of the chip market. All of my co-presenters are well known in their fields and will doubtlessly provide valuable insights on what tomorrow has to offer.
My presentation will be a rapid-fire onslaught of valuable information proving that certain outcomes are nearly inevitable and showing how they should evolve over time.
I will specifically discuss today’s down-cycle, the end of More’s Law, semiconductor process changes, including materials and production technologies, changes in end-use architectures (and the impact they will have), the imporatance of new end markets like 5G, and geographical and political issues, especially those dealing with today’s US/China trade war.
The semiconductor industry is in the early stages of Continue reading “SEMICON West: See Me There”
