The prices for next-generation computer memory chips, or DDR3, could rise by between 5 percent and 10 percent this month as chip demand rises significantly after PC makers’ aggressive launch of ultra-low-voltage (ULV) computers, DRAMeXchange Technology Inc (集邦科技) said yesterday.
The Taipei-based research house said chipmakers could step up DDR3 production as demand picks up, allowing DDR3 to account for 30 percent of total PC memory output by the end of the year, up from 10 percent in the first quarter.
Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s No. 3 PC maker, expects its ULV notebook computers to make up half of its notebook shipments this year.
The Taiwanese company forecast ULV notebooks would make up 20 percent of the global laptop market next year.
Over the past two months, DDR3 memory chips have traded between US$1.50 and US$1.70 per unit, 50 percent higher than mainstream DDR2 chips, DRAMeXchange said in a report released yesterday.
In Taiwan, only Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s No. 2 PC memory chipmaker, and Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), its joint venture with the US-based Micron Memory Inc, make DDR3 chips.
Their combined DDR3 output accounted for less than 10 percent of global production, the researcher said.
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