Managing DRAM Supply in the Quarters Ahead

The Outlook - DRAM Prices Up. Legacy Supply Tightening. Shift to Leading-Edge Generation Continues.

The top 3 DRAM suppliers and top 3 market segments shape the DRAM market.

• Three suppliers deliver over 90% of the DRAMs to the market. They invest billions of dollars for massive production facilities for each generation.
• To recoup their investment, they secure long term supply agreements with mass market customers that are 85% of demand.

DRAM Supply

Market Consumption

Analysts reported that a majority of DRAM buyers endured a 10-23% DRAM price increase in Q1-2024. In Q2, the mainstream memory market is forecast to have additional DRAM price increases of as much as 8%. This is in despite of demand migrating to DDR5, which has a more cost-effective production process.

Interpreting a Complicated Forecast.

The three market segments that consume 85% of DRAMs and their generational transition, drives the supply, which is nearing the final transition from DDR4 to DDR5. If you’re not in servers, PCs, or mobile markets, you’ll likely experience supply challenges for older generation DRAMs.

To help visual the DRAM supply impact on the “Other 15%” markets, we’ve assigned a 5-level supply threat assessment indicator for DRAM availability. These markets never reach the green level (level 5) because only 15% of the supply has not already been allocated to the mainstream markets.

SMARTsemi DRAMs Serve the Underserved Markets.

The sooner a DRAM component generation is qualified, the more likely your supply with be uninterrupted. We encourage you to order qualification samples today and contact a SMART representative or distributor to help get us on your DRAM AVL, especially if you’re in one of these Other 15% market verticals that find memory sourcing and end-of-life support challenging.

SMARTsemi application and engineering experience can help you find and qualify DRAMs quickly. And our commitment to being your DRAM supply partner includes sourcing model that enables SMARTsemi to extend generational end-of-life, giving you more time to complete production runs or upgrade products to another DRAM solution.