Mass production of 36nm 2Gb DDR3 chip

According to reports, Samsung plans to begin mass production of 2GB DDR3 chips based on the 36nm process technology in the fourth quarter of this year, and continue to be far ahead of Japan-US competitors in process upgrades. With the setting of production schedule, Samsung's DRAM shipments using the technology will exceed 50% in the next year.

Compared with Samsung's current main 46nm process, 36nm means 30% cost reduction, and Samsung's 2GB DDR3's average production cost will be reduced to 1 US dollar. The second quarter of the DRAM memory chip production costs suffered the first increase since the third quarter of 2006, and the mass production of Samsung's new process chips is believed to be good news.

In contrast, the process of upgrading its competitors appears to be relatively slow. Elpida is currently moving from mainstream 63nm to 45nm, while Micron is upgrading from 50nm to 42nm.

According to industry sources, the mass production of Samsung’s new process chips will make their chip prices lower again, which is bad news for competitors. Since Taiwan’s DRAM makers’ technical support comes from Elpida and Micron, price wars in the DRAM market are once again staged.

According to a report released by Jibang Technology, the DRAM futures price in the third quarter fell by 13%. With 1GB DDR3 price or down to 1.50 US dollars, the fourth quarter DRAM futures prices may also decline by 20%.