News Samsung to Cut 3D NAND and DRAM Production

[Admin]

Samsung to lower memory production to balance supply and demand on the market.

Samsung to Cut 3D NAND and DRAM Production : Read more

 

[PlaneInTheSky]

Not shocked their demand is down, who still wants Samsung SSD at this point.

 

[InvalidError]

With the ChatGPT AI supremacy race kicking off two months ago and the massive surge in AI accelerator demand since, I think Samsung has a golden opportunity to shift production from DDRx/GDDRx to HBM for the next couple of years.

 

[Ogotai]

actually, i do, just bought 2 more of their drives

 

[USAFRet]

Not shocked their demand is down, who still wants Samsung SSD at this point.

This is not related to any recent weirdness with the 980 or 990.
According to the article, Samsung produced almost half the worldwide DRAM production, and 1/3 of the NAND.
Far more than just NVMe drives.

Quick - What brand DRAM or NAND is in your cellphone right now? Your TV/router/printer/car/doorbell?
And does it matter?

 

[AgentBirdnest]

Not shocked their demand is down, who still wants Samsung SSD at this point.

The 99.7% of people who use Samsung SSDs without having the slightest clue about the recent problems two models had.
edit: even among enthusiasts who keep up with tech news and did know about the 980/990 issues - a lot of them (like myself) are still interested in Samsung.

 

[Co BIY]

Article Subtitle : It is better to sell less at higher prices than more at lower prices, apparently.

Article Quote :"Still, this oversupply is due to weakening demand and high inventory, so Samsung's production cut is not expected to stimulate sales.

Selling more at lower prices may not have been an option.

Reducing production at the margin could result in lower per unit cost.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Oh please tell me the EU and US are looking at this incredibly closely. In a three player market in which one player controls nearly half the market share, and they reduce production in order to attempt to force higher market prices, to me that screams "WE'RE VIOLATING THE SHERMAN ACT!!!"

 

[ekio]

Maybe ssds are too expansive and they should adjust their crazy prices so people can buy them with more ease. Then they wouldn’t have to reduce production…

 

[InvalidError]

Maybe ssds are too expansive and they should adjust their crazy prices so people can buy them with more ease. Then they wouldn’t have to reduce production…

When you consider that modern conventional chips cost ~$20 per 100sqmm of wafer space with about 14 metal layers in them while modern NAND can be 200+ layers, I'm actually impressed that SSDs can be as affordable as they already are.

Almost every major economic slowdown followed by a crash in DRAM demand in the past has been followed by one or two of the remaining DRAM manufacturers going bankrupt. The margins at current prices may be getting dangerously thin, especially when almost everyone has 20+G$ committed to expansion projects from the chip shortage only a year ago.

 

[ekio]

Doing C/GPUs and flash memory has nothing in common. One is a complex set of transistors that needs to run at high frequency and temp, the other is just an array, way simpler in design.

 

[InvalidError]

Doing C/GPUs and flash memory has nothing in common. One is a complex set of transistors that needs to run at high frequency and temp, the other is just an array, way simpler in design.

A CPU or GPU's critical structures are all in the first 3-4 metal layers, connecting transistors on the base silicon layer together. Everything else on top is just plain power and wiring.

NAND on the other hand is 200+ layers of equally fine active structures requiring all of the steps necessary for forming transistors on top of the steps needed for the charge traps and wiring.

 

[hannibal]

Well we need more expensive memory! So it will closer to GPU prices… Maybe AMD and Intel has to do something to CPU prising also or they soon feel being alone.