DRAM pricing story

[rkawakami]

http://www.dramexchange.com/WeeklyResea ... 2/622.aspx

(Note: eTT = effectively tested; meaning that it's finished product and fully guaranteed to work according to specs). A quote from the article which generally means bad news for the affected manufacturers:

With further analysis, the current packaging and testing price is around 0.35 to 0.4 USD. If we took this price as an example, one 1Gb eTT DRAM chip priced at 0.68 USD can only contribute 0.28 USD to the DRAM vendor. What's even worse is that the DDR2 512 Mb chip price is almost equal to the packaging and testing price, which means that it comes to a "no cash inflow but only cash outflow" stage for the DRAM vendors.

The typical saying at this point in time is that the memory makers are wrapping a dollar bill around each part they ship. It's a way of saying that the more parts you make and ship, the more it ends up costing the company.