BL> The bit that stuns me is that 4Mb RAM is $45. That values the
 BL> chips at $2.50 each! I costed 16M RAM at $150 allowing $10 a
 BL> chip. It must mean that 16Mb could go as low as $50,
 BL> eventually. Gee...

 DM> I heard on the rumour mill that it could go as low as $5.00
 DM> /meg.

 KR> i thought you might be interested in this article from
 KR> "reseller news". the prices quoted seem to indicate that it may
 KR> be a month or so old. 

  Those trade mags are always late (and mostly wrong) 

 KR> Hyundai Eleetronics and LG Semicon both responded to the
 KR> Samsung cutback announeement by restating their determination
 KR> to aggressively expand pro duction of 16Mbit DRAM by year's
 KR> end. Sources in Seoul said that Hyundai is now the most
 KR> aggressive price buster in the spot market, offering 16Mbit
 KR> parts for as low as $US9.50 last week, bringing the cost for
 KR> the silicon portion of lMb of DRAM to below XUS5.

  Ahh! So it *is* what I thought it was... Korea finally online in a
large way.

  The Korean Chaebols are not as controlled as Japanese zaibatsu;
there is no MITI to get them to fix prices, and as you said, the
Koreans love to hurt Japs anyway. I was beginning to worry that the
RAM collapse heralded a new technology, but it looks like it's just
Win95's poor sales causing oversupply, coupled to Korea (and Taiwan)
putting the boot into the Japs. In spite of Paul's blind trust in a
free market, the price of RAM has been outrageous!

  I still think my $150(AUD retail) estimate (for whatever size RAM is
easily made) is about right for a true price. That allows $8(US) per
chip, but half that would be possible. Of course, you'd still expect
the actual size of the RAM to double every year like hard discs - as
technology improves. The true price is entry-level.

  BTW... shouldn't video cards and lasers suddenly get cheaper too? 
We've been paying $100 for 2Mb RAM now worth $20... a good accelerator
card ought to sell for $80 soon.

Regards,
Bob

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
@EOT:

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