Samsung says it has the future of DRAM sorted after success with new EUV process Samsung is confident it has the future of DRAM in the bag after successfully producing memory using a cutting-edge EUV-based lithography process. EUV technology uses short-wavelength ultraviolet light that are close to soft X-rays. The result is smaller features, and a potentially cheaper and simpler manufacturing process, …
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A stamping press is more complex technology to bend metals into a shape, but allows a simpler and cheaper manufacturing process - compared to bulding a master shape and hammering the metal by hand.
Learning how to control a new technology to achieve a given result can be complex (and expensive), once you get it using it may deliver a simpler and cheaper manufacturing process.
But RAM is much, much, much cheaper for the end customer, both byte-for-byte and in terms of what's suitable for a typical per-user workload, than it was a few decades ago.
In 1990, the cheapest RAM listed in John McCallum's data was $46 per MB. Adjusted for inflation that's about $91. The 2020 prices average out to around $0.0033 / MB, a factor of almost 40000.
Bah, once out of the EU, Britannia can spread her wings and soar, freed from bureaucratic masters and return to making RAM by hand in the good old way in tiny quantities, in little back sheds with hand-tools, with unkempt dogged ingenuity and bold determination.
Good job too, for once out we won't be able to afford that foreign muck.
I've tweaked it a bit. The point is: it can be cheaper and simpler during manufacturing, but developing the technology to get to this point has been complex and difficult.
Don't forget to email corrections@theregister.co.uk if you spot any inconsistencies so that they can be fixed, ta.
C.
Sounds like paradise. And, made faster and easier means making more with the same resources means each unit costs less, so it's a win-win-win.
Except that they're going to want to recoup the costs of putting it in place, so we're not going to see price drops any time soon. And the gaming crowd won't care because it'd DDR5, man, look at those framerates !
So ... the price stays the same, but the product gets better. An outrage!
Were I in the habit of buying computers,1 I'd be pleased to hear about this. Reducing power consumption alone is good.
1I've only ever bought one general-purpose computer, and that was 13 years ago. It was OK. I buy (used or remaindered) phones every few years, but that's because the damn things break and generally aren't repairable under reasonable conditions.
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