[Wikinews-l] DRAMeXchange Compuforum '08 Press Release: Decipher the Development Trends of the Memory and Storage Industry

[Rico C. Shen @ Wikinews]

Taipei, June 4, 2008

Deemed as one of the most successful international events at the 2008 Taipei
Computex show, DRAMeXchange yesterday held its annual conference at the
brand-new Nangang Exhibition Hall. Conference participants, ranging from
leading memory storage to professionals to numerous related industry
experts, came from more than 20 countries.

Three key analysts from the Industry Research Division of DRAMeXchange
discussed the opportunities and challenges of the DRAM and NAND Flash
sectors as well as the current market current trend of China's memory module
market:

Joyce Yang, Vice President of Industry Research Division, indicated that
amid the diminishing presence of the 8-inch fabs, slower expansion of the
12-inch fabs and DRAM makers' reducing capital spending by 37% (YoY), the
overall industry growth rate is expected to reach around 55% - which,
compared to last year's 93%, has substantially declined by 40%. As for the
development in the chip process technology, the mainstream production
process of DDR2 will shift from 70nm 8F2 to 65nm 6F2, and 5Xnm by the end of
this year. Such trend stems from the need to further lower production costs
in gaining a favorable edge in the intense market competition.

On the other hand, Jeff Chen, Senior Analyst of Industry Research noted that
when it comes to getting into the China DRAM module market, channel is the
determining factor, along with strong, resourceful local distributors.
China's market is desirable in the eyes of many major module makers with
stronger spot DRAM modules demand, which is caused by China's shipment ratio
of DT/PC is higher than other major markets. For module makers, the strength
of channel power and lower cost are the two important factors to be
successful in China. Nowadays, the DRAM module primary channels are mainly
in the hands of Chaozhounese in Shenzhen.

Wayne Chen, Director of Industry Research Division, pointed out that as the
infrastructure of global wireless broadband network (3.5-4G & WiMax)
develops, more growth opportunities for portable electronics will appear.
With the global launch of HDTV, the need for higher storage capacity will
subsequently increase. This increases the NAND Flash usage in electronic
storage devices and creates more business opportunities for storage
applications.

Separately, six guest speakers also shared their valuable industry
experience and professional viewpoint at the event

Qimonda: Up to 75% of power can be saved by the "right" memory & system

Peter Schaefer, Vice President for Product Line Server of Qimonda AG,
focused on how to achieve power saving and carbon reduction through its
Buried wordline process and chip miniaturization. The goal is to lower the
power usage and increase performance. Based on the power usage of global
PCs, Qimonda's products lowers the voltage from 18v to 1.55 v (a 20%
reduction in power consumption), and through the AMB's control, it can be
lowered by another 10%, thereby reducing the carbon consumption.

SanDisk: SSDs will consume 1/3 of the NAND Flash output in 2012

Doreet Oren, Director Product Marketing of SanDisk Israel, indicated that
SSDs will consume 1/3 of the NAND Flash output in 2012, which is far larger
than all other application products combined. This trend will also bring in
billions of dollars of business opportunities for SSD manufacturers. It is
expected that the storage capacity of SSDs can reach 256GB in 2010 and hence
emerge as the mainstream data storage device in the near future. 

Silicon Motion: SSD won't become mainstream applications without using MLC
NAND

World's largest NAND flash controller provider, Silicon Motion Technology's
C.E.O., Wallace Kou, noted SLC cost is about 2X that of MLC chips with the
same density. SSD won't become the mainstream application if MLC NAND is not
used. Thus, development of SSD's MLC NAND Flash is a key factor for cost
reduction. However, MLC SSD faces major application problems and in order to
improve their inherent limitations, it is important to rely on the
controller to increase the speed, stability and the number of read/write
times. Currently, controller manufacturers use bad block management, error
correcting code and wear leveling to enhance the life of MLC chip in SSDs.
 
ASUSTek: 1 billion low-priced PCs with SSD storage in the market, and
possibly up to 5 billion units in 2011

Samson Hu, General Manager of EPC Business Unit of ASUSTek, indicated that
numerous industry professionals feel optimistic about the SSD application in
PC after ASUSTek launched its Eee PC during 4Q07, which used 4GB/8GB SSDs.
Major PC manufacturers also launched similar products during 2Q08 after the
success of ASUSTek's Eee PC launch. Currently, there are about 1 billion
low-priced PCs with SSD storage application in the market, and possibly up
to 5 billion units in 2011.

Hitachi GST: As storage capacity will continue to expand, reasonable price
advantage will create business opportunities for HDD makers

Mr. Robert Chu, Vice President of the Asia-Pacific region of Hitachi Global
Storage Technology, pointed out that the current applications of HDD in the
IT industry are for enterprises, NB PC and DTPC. For the consumer
electronics, there are home/personal data storage, DVR, MP3/PMP, game
machines, and automation equipment. HDD enjoys the advantage of featuring a
higher storage capacity, bit cost and performance. As capacity demand of new
applications increases, storage capacity will continue to expand. As a
result, the bigger storage capacity and reasonable price advantage will
create new business opportunities for HDD makers.

Seagate: HDD is seen as the leading device for explosion of storage in the
home

According to Seagate's Executive Director of Korea/Taiwan, Brian Wickman,
HDD manufactures focused on the exploding demand for enterprise HDD market
in the past few years. From now on, amid the arrival of the
Broadband/Internet era, HDD is seen as the leading device for the storage of
the enormous amount of information transferred through the network for the
consumer market. Wickman forecasted that scale of global storage will reach
374 Exabytes in 2012 with an average home storage of 185 Exabytes.
Meanwhile, Seagate will introduce its first SSD storage and 2T-byte hard
drive next year. The company's first SSD product will be targeted at
enterprises that need speedy storage and can afford to pay a premium price.

Media contact:

Ms. Lilia Huang
Tel: +886-2-7702-6888 ext.680
Mobile: +886-912-031-680
liliahuang at dramexchange.com

Mr. Angus Hsu
Tel: +886-2-7702-6888 ext.690
Mobile: +886-952-532-368
angushsu at dramexchange.com

About DRAMeXchange

DRAMeXchange is a global leading provider of market intelligence, in-depth
analysis reports and consultant services on major electronics components.
Our company consists of 3 major research divisions - DRAMeXchange, WitsView
and LEDinside, which cover the DRAM, NAND Flash, PC and display research
sectors. You can learn more about DRAMeXchange by visiting
www.dramexchange.com. In the year 2000, the company started to deliver
market intelligence services under the name of DRAMeXchange technology. This
included the current business environment, real-time spot trading prices,
market trends, capital spending and wafer capacity trends, the impact of
DRAM/flash memory products on the market, and other relevant PC industry
information.

About LEDinside

LEDinside is a subsidiary division of DRAMeXchange Tech Inc. LEDinside
provides LED (light-emitting diode) research to users. LEDinside covers the
technology development, market trend, and financial information of the LED
industry both on a global and regional basis.