1 Hour Power Outage at Micron Manufacturing Plant Could Mean Increased DRAM Prices Throughout 2021

[R-T-B]

I'd assume they had a backup generator, but that backup generator failed for an hour.

The problem with backup plans is that backup plans are rarely tested. It could be as simple as "backup generator's gasoline went busted" or "not enough oil to start the engine", and bam, you have actual downtime.

---------

Or if its a battery-backup system, then "batteries couldn't hold a charge as long as expected", or similar effect that you won't figure out until you actually experience a mains outage. An aged battery will have a lower amperage for output, and that alone can cause an outage and/or issues. (Ex: you get 110V @ 50Hz instead of @60, so you have 18% less power than expected).

Yeah, at this point though this excuse has been used too many times for them not to be testing this system regularly. It's a "negilgence" type scenario even if it is true, as I said. They just decided it was cheaper to let it happen to jack up the costs, or outright fake it. Take your pick, both are bad.

 

[ArdWar]

The article says DRAM, so GDDR should not be affected. Or so I'm hoping.

Heh, GDDR is DRAM.

 

[robot zombie]

I'd assume they had a backup generator, but that backup generator failed for an hour.

The problem with backup plans is that backup plans are rarely tested. It could be as simple as "backup generator's gasoline went busted" or "not enough oil to start the engine", and bam, you have actual downtime.

Two years in a row I worked at walmart. And two years in a row, ALL of the cold goods... hundreds of thousands of dollars worth, went bad because nobody checked the backup generator before closing down for a hurricane break.

 

[Vayra86]

And this is why you hold off on buying until the price is right.

We learned this, time to do it again. High DRAM price? Fine we will sit on DDR4 for another half decade, Micron.

Send the message.

 

[spnidel]

suuuuuuuuuuure, any lame excuse will go to up the prices for these corporate fucks

 

[hv43082]

So much for the expected DRAM prices to continue to fall into 2021...Time to stock up stat.

 

[MIRTAZAPINE]

I hate this cartel practice again...Should I buy ram now to keep aside?

 

[R-T-B]

Two years in a row I worked at walmart. And two years in a row, ALL of the cold goods... hundreds of thousands of dollars worth, went bad because nobody checked the backup generator before closing down for a hurricane break.

I mean, just because it happens doesn't make it not negligent.

 

[goodeedidid]

scalpers flipped the switch!

Not how it works.

 

[evernessince]

I'd assume they had a backup generator, but that backup generator failed for an hour.

The problem with backup plans is that backup plans are rarely tested. It could be as simple as "backup generator's gasoline went busted" or "not enough oil to start the engine", and bam, you have actual downtime.

---------

Or if its a battery-backup system, then "batteries couldn't hold a charge as long as expected", or similar effect that you won't figure out until you actually experience a mains outage. An aged battery will have a lower amperage for output, and that alone can cause an outage and/or issues. (Ex: you get 110V @ 50Hz instead of @60, so you have 18% less power than expected).

There really is no excuse for a company of that size to let this happen time and time again. They have the financial means and they continue to let it happen.

 

[R-T-B]

There really is no excuse for a company of that size to let this happen time and time again. They have the financial means and they continue to let it happen.

That's the thing. It's cheaper to let it happen, because it literally helps them by making the price higher.

It needs to not be. Tell them to eat the cost. It's the only way.

 

[robot zombie]

I mean, just because it happens doesn't make it not negligent.

Indeed, but their whole policy is negligent, so maybe the guy who would've checked the damn thing was actually doing his job by leaving it be.

 

[bug]

Heh, GDDR is DRAM.

It is, but RAM for video cards usually gets designated as such.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Really a 1 hour power outage translates into more than a 1 hour down time on production.

Was it a planned 1 hour downtime or not. IF, big if, was unplanned the production line would take days to clean up and reset, with just a loss of materials, which, later can be QA'd as a separate function and inserted back on the line where it was taken off. That doesnt mean they are smart enough to do that tho.

If it was planned they would just shut down the line ( production ) and restart it with nothing lost and a fantastic "oh so dramatic" news story that power was out and its affecting prices next year.

 

[saki630]

in order to bolster stock prices and request for both higher operating budgets and government subsidies..... Micron staged the 1hour power shutoff events exactly when they were producing 100% of 2021's DRAM wafers. Here we see Micron once again adding increased profit/wafer, and that cost being passed onto consumers. We need an oversight committee to verify if 1hour of down time really impacts everyone in 2021. This seems highly suspicious. Almost like someone is stockpiling DRAM to sell after Biden takes office...

 

[D3m0n5]

first off, Fabs require lots of very clean power, your likely have to spin up an independent source to provide that level of resilience and that’s just not their business. As with most industries some fabs do have agreements in place for failover power.
Manufacturing IC is also a pain in the Butt, the investment and equipment required typically require manufacturers to invests hundreds of millions in the fab that won’t really pay itself off unless the fab is in business for 10-15 years or sometimes more. The process to manufacture IC is also very elaborate and when the fab has one hiccup in power they will likely have to dump all in dev inventory as the quality is compromised. Point is, the fab business is a pain in the butt, shit happens and having a price increase because of a major failure event isn’t anything new.

 

[stimpy88]

Oops!

 

[xorbe]

Little Jimmy tripped over his shoe laces. DRAM prices were up on the news.

 

[Bones]

first off, Fabs require lots of very clean power, your likely have to spin up an independent source to provide that level of resilience and that’s just not their business. As with most industries some fabs do have agreements in place for failover power.
Manufacturing IC is also a pain in the Butt, the investment and equipment required typically require manufacturers to invests hundreds of millions in the fab that won’t really pay itself off unless the fab is in business for 10-15 years or sometimes more. The process to manufacture IC is also very elaborate and when the fab has one hiccup in power they will likely have to dump all in dev inventory as the quality is compromised. Point is, the fab business is a pain in the butt, shit happens and having a price increase because of a major failure event isn’t anything new.

We get that, some of us have been involved with manufacturing before and I know I have - I was once part of a maintenance crew in such an operation (Manufacturing) and let me tell you, downtime IS a killer and a total high-pressure PITA with the managers and boss fuming, smoke coming out of their ears over it and we had to get it done faster than ASAP if it could be done at all.

However....... With that said these "Reasons" for hiking prices have been occuring with regularity for a few years now and it seems during the same time of the year too.
Regardless of the reasons stated, such can only happen so often before it goes beyond coincidence, right into the realm of "It's gotta be BS".

 

[Ravenmaster]

Any excuse to price gouge. I'm betting they did this intentionally.

 

[freeagent]

I bought another 16gb of ram for relatively cheap after reading this lol. I don’t need 32gb.. but when new CPU’s are readily available I have an m/atx case I would like to use and my 6 core would be a nice little gamer for my kids with a cheap board.

 

[bobsled]

Nvidia: "Shortages Partly Caused by Insufficient Wafer, Substrate and Component Supply"
Micron: *FLIP*

Laughed whilst drinking, now it's everywhere. Haha.

 

[ratirt]

Well 2021 is around the corner and with the DDR4 ram prices going down, they had to figure out how to bump the DDR4's, price since DDR5 is coming out next year and the price must be adjusted to a ridiculous value so that every company producing ram chips is happy except us when we have to pay double of what a decent DDR4 module costs nowadays.

 

[Sovsefanden]

Prices are too low. Cut the power.

 

[TheUn4seen]

(...)but a 1 hour outage wreaking havoc on the entire plant..... haven't any of these mfgr's ever heard of back-up power supplies/UPS/ATS, I mean WTF ????

You guys seem fairly outraged about something you have no knowledge of.
As an example: My wife does high-level auditing in corporations. A few years ago a certain biomedical company lost more than a billion Euros after a similar power outage lasting less than two hours. Why no backup power? Well, their factory uses almost five megawatts. They would need a small power plant as a backup power source, which actually wouldn't help, as generator startup takes a lot of time and the most losses were due to cooling/refrigeration failures which are time critical. A semiconductor manufacturing plant uses way more power and is at least as vulnerable to the loss of filtration, temperature control and production progression. I can tell you from experience, if a complex production line stops, the reset time takes hours if not days, the products and half-products which were on the line have to be junked and it's generally a bad day for everyone.