The DRAMeXchange http://www.dramexchange.com/ keeps a very close watch on the spot and contract prices for all forms of semiconductor memory including DRAM and NAND Flash devices. The group also keeps an eye on trends that may affect pricing. A couple of days ago, the DRAMeXchange pronounced six major trends expected to affect the DRAM and NAND Flash markets for the next three years. In order, these trends are:
- DDR3 SDRAM will dominate the PC market until 2014.
- LPDDR3 SDRAM will supplant LPDDR2 SDRAM in mobile application by 2013 while the fate of Wide I/O SDRAM hangs on the successful maturation of 3D IC assembly.
- The Ultrabook market is a tossup between DDR3L and LPDDR3 SDRAM.
- If SSD unit costs drop below $1/Gbyte, they will see explosive growth as Ultrabooks adopt SSDs over hybrid HDD/SSD designs.
- SATA 3.0 HDDs will become the mainstream interface for PC SSDs in 2012 but the advent of ONFI 3.0 and Toggle DDR2.0 NAND Flash devices will mean that SSD vendors will be forced to adopt even faster interfaces such as PCIe in two to three years.
- NAND Flash usage in Ultrabook and smartphone designs will increase to the detriment of SDRAM capacity because of relative price/performance metrics.
See the full description of the DRAMeXchange predictions here.
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