Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[wbmw]

Joe, you think the memory industry will skip 512Mb technology, just because you haven't heard of it? I think not. That's the next logical density, so the DRAM makers will take advantage of it. Since new manufacturing processes are usually on a 2-year cadence, you'll see that memory density usually doubles during the same period (though sometimes it's as soon as 18 months, due to half shrinks). As new densities get released, prices will begin to decline for the older generation. It's a fairly stable process, notwithstanding industry wide downfalls, such as 2001. Since 512MB is the norm this year for total system memory, I think we'll see 1GB as the norm in H1 2005, and 2GB as the norm in late 2006 or 2007, at the earliest. Mainstream won't be breaking the 4GB barrier until the end of the decade, though I'm sure the enthusiast market will hit it sooner. Like it or not, that's the trend.

By the way, the "1GB" DIMMs on Pricewatch are actually kits of two 512MB DIMMs. You'll be hard pressed to find actual, inexpensive 1GB DIMMs anywhere. I managed to find some for $799 at Kingston.com, but it was only DDR333 ($526 for DDR266). There are no 1GB DDR400 DIMMs.

http://www.valueram.com/config/type_parts.asp?type=ddr

See for yourself. Just be careful about the ones that say "kit".