The United States government, via the Department of Commerce, has banned all exports from national companies to China-based Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuits Ltd. The ban, citing "significant risk of becoming involved in activities that are contrary to the national security interests of the United States", demands that a license is required for "all exports, re-exports, and transfers of commodities, software and technology (...) to Jinhua." It then adds that these license applications will be reviewed - always - with a presumption of denial.

Solid-state drives are cheaper than ever, thanks to systematic decline in NAND flash prices owing both to oversupply and increases in densities. NAND flash prices have already declined by 50 percent over 2018, according to a DigiTimes report, and will continue to slide through 2019. ADATA chairman Simon Chen commented that NAND flash makers haven't slowed down capacity expansions, and 2019 could witness an even bigger drop in prices than 2018.

Major NAND flash makers such as IMFlash Technology, SK Hynix, Samsung, Western Digital, Toshiba, have already taped out their 96-layer 3D NAND flash products, which could enter volume production in the first half of 2019. This could impact prices of existing swelling inventories of products based on 64-layer NAND flash. In theory, the 96-layer chips introduce 50 percent increases in densities. Adoption of newer technologies such as QLC (4 bits per cell) will expand densities even further. The same report also projects that DRAM prices could largely remain flat throughout 2019. Most NAND flash makers also happen to make DRAM, and could balance their NAND flash losses with DRAM profits.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced several groundbreaking additions to its comprehensive semiconductor ecosystem that encompass next-generation technologies in foundry as well as NAND flash, SSD (solid state drive) and DRAM. Together, these developments mark a giant step forward for Samsung's semiconductor business.

"Samsung's technology leadership and product breadth are unparalleled," said JS Choi, President, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. "Bringing 7 nm EUV into production is an incredible achievement. Also, the announcements of SmartSSD and 256GB 3DS RDIMM represent performance and capacity breakthroughs that will continue to push compute boundaries. Together, these additions to Samsung's comprehensive technology ecosystem will power the next generation of datacenters, high-performance computing (HPC), enterprise, artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging applications."

As HyperX begins shipping Cloud Mix , its first Bluetooth-enabled gaming and lifestyle headset this month, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc. today announced that since its inception in 2002, it has shipped over 60 million memory modules, billions of bytes of memory. Chosen by OEMs, PC builders, overclockers, and the gaming community, HyperX has steadily grown as the largest independent gaming memory module manufacturer and performance leader. With this major milestone and the growth in sales of headsets, keyboards and mice, HyperX is projected to exceed $550 million in total revenue for branded products in 2018.

Since HyperX launched 16 years ago, it has increasingly expanded its product line and market reach. The HyperX brand is not only recognized for delivering high quality memory products, but also as a peripherals leader, providing gaming headsets, keyboards, mice, and mousepads to gamers across the globe. The HyperX Engineering Labs and engineering team is committed to developing technology to bring new performance memory products to the PC, mini-PC and notebook markets. HyperX provides a variety of memory solutions, including Predator DIMMs for high performance PC builds, FURY DIMMs for gamers building affordable PCs, and Impact SODIMMs for notebook updates and system builds.

Ukrainian PC enthusiast and software developer 1usmus today released DRAM Calculator for Ryzen version 1.4.0. This utility was formerly known as "Ryzen DRAM Calculator," which has since been voluntarily renamed by the author in the interest of avoiding any future trademark conflict with AMD, or giving users the impression that the software has been made by AMD. The change in name doesn't change the fact this could be your go-to app to figure out the best memory settings for your AMD Ryzen-powered machine.

PC enthusiasts usually only remember 4 or 5 DRAM timing settings besides DRAM clock and voltage, letting the motherboard BIOS figure out the rest of the stable values, which could often be looser than needed. DRAM Calculator for Ryzen figures out nearly every under-the-hood timing, voltage, clock-speed, and other setting needed to make the most out of your memory overclock. You can also make the app work out "safe," "stable," and "extreme" variations of its own calculations. Version 1.4.0 isn't just a name-change for the application. It introduces a large number of critical updates to the app that improve accuracy and functionality.

DOWNLOAD: DRAM Calculator for Ryzen v1.4.0The change-log follows.

32-gigabyte DDR4 UDIMMs are a reality. Samsung recently announced the development of a 32 GB DDR4 dual-rank UDIMM, using higher density DRAM chips. Those chips, however, are unlikely to be available anytime soon, compounded by Samsung's reported scumbaggery in the making. In the midst of all this, motherboard major ASUS designed its own non-JEDEC UDIMM standard, called "Double Capacity DIMM" or DC DIMM, with the likes of G.Skill and Zadak designing the first models. The utility of these modules is to max out the CPU memory controller's limit despite having fewer memory slots on the motherboard. Possible use-cases include LGA1151 mini-ITX motherboards with just one slot per memory channel (2 slots in all), or certain LGA2066 boards with just four slots (one slot per channel).

There is no word on the memory chip configuration modules, but it's highly likely they are dual-rank. The first DDR4 DC modules could be 32 GB, letting you max out the memory controller limit of 8th gen and 9th gen Core processors with just two modules. ASUS is heavily marketing this standard with its upcoming motherboards based on Intel's Z390 Express chipset, so it remains to be seen if other ASUS motherboards (or other motherboards in general) support the standard. Ironically, the Zadak-made module shown in ASUS marketing materials use DRAM chips made by Samsung.

In a bid to head off investor worries of a potential downturn, Samsung is looking to tighten their belts in regards to the manufacturing of DRAM. In particular, this move is preempted by the expectation of DRAM bit growth to be less than 20% year-over-year, with bit growth being the key measurement for gauging market demand based on the amount of memory produced. Considering the semiconductor industry is known for its up and down cycles, Samsung's preemptive move could stabilize or even drive up the cost of memory coming out of not just them but Micron and SK Hynix as well. This would help keep their profits rolling in, just in case a downturn in demand does take place, but it also means PC enthusiasts will have to deal with memory prices remaining roughly the same or possibly climb higher going forward.

Anthea Lai, an analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, in Hong Kong made note that "If Samsung does cut its DRAM bit growth, it shows the company is happy with the current oligopoly market structure." Elaborating further, he said that "It prefers keeping supply tight and prices high, rather than taking market share and risking lower prices, therefore chances for DRAM prices to stay strong is higher."

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND flash products, today launched the ADATA IUSP33F PCIe ball grid array (BGA) solid state drive (SSD). The SSD sports a form factor that is 80 percent more compact than M.2 2242 SSDs. Combined with a PCIe Gen3x2 interface and 3D Flash memory for excellent performance and durability, the IUSP33F is an ideal solution for slim-form-factor tablets, notebooks, hybrids, mini-PCs, thin clients, and wearables.

"We are thrilled to be introducing the new IUSP33F SSD, a compact solution that will enable next-generation tablets, ultrabooks, and other slim devices, but without compromising on performance and reliability," said Hedi Huang, Sales Directorof ADATA. "But the versatility of the IUSP33F goes beyond just these applications, and are also well-suited for new emerging applications in areas such as robotics, augmented and virtual reality, and automotive.

Samsung is ready with a 32 GB DDR4 UDIMM (unbuffered DIMMs) targeted at desktops. Dual-channel kits with these modules could let you max out the 64 GB memory limit of today's mainstream desktop processors, and 128 GB limits of Intel's Core X HEDT processors, with quad-channel kits. AMD's Ryzen Threadripper processors are advertised to support up to 2 TB of memory (including ECC support), so it should finally be possible to pack up to 256 GB of memory on Threadripper-powered machines.

The new M378A4G43MB1-CTD DDR4 UDIMM from Samsung is, unsurprisingly, a dual-rank module (x8 / x16 Organization or up to 2 ranks per DIMM and 2DPC configuration). It ticks at DDR4-2666 at a module voltage of 1.2 V. The module itself won't be much to look at, with a green PCB and bare-naked DRAM chips. It is is currently sampling to PC OEMs. It could also be possible for more popular memory manufacturers to get in touch with Samsung for the DRAM chips that make up this module. A single-rank variant of this module could finally make it possible for AMD Ryzen AM4 machines to have 32 GB of dual-channel memory at acceptably high memory clocks.

Crucial has become one of the biggest players in the consumer SSD market due to their excellent price/capacity/performance ratios (their SSDs consistently score highly in our own resident wizard's reviews for some reason, after all). Now, the company is looking to lower price/GB even more as it launches the BX500 series to the market - available in capacities of 120 GB, 240 GB and 480 GB using Micron 3D NAND chips.

Yes, it's a SATA III SSD. And yes, the SATA III connector really is a limiting factor in this SSD's performance - but remember that SATA III controllers are much less costly than NVMe implementations. Sequential performance is rated for up to 540MB/s read and 500MB/s write (4K performance is sadly absent). The whole plethora of usual SSD technologies are here as well - multi-step data integrity algorithm, thermal monitoring, SLC write acceleration, active garbage collection, TRIM support, self-monitoring and reporting technology (SMART) and error correction code (ECC)... For the pricing, these are likely of the DRAM-less variety of SSDs, which means SLC caching is of utmost importance for performance. But pricing really is some of the lowest ever - Crucial is quoting $29.99 for the 120 GB model, $49.99 for the 240 GB one and $89.99 for 480 GB worth of BX500 storage. Crucial will start shipping out orders on August 31st.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND flash products, today announces that it will be showcasing its latest products and solutions at IFA 2018 in Berlin (Messe Berlin, IFA My Media, Hall 17, stand 120). Among the products to be on show will be ADATA's latest XPG gaming hardware including RGB DDR4 memory modules, PCIe SSDs, and accessories. In addition, its new high-capacity A1-rated microSDXC memory card and rugged external hard disk drive (HDD) will be on hand.

"We look forward to being at IFA 2018 and showcasing our latest portfolio of products, ranging from gaming hardware to storage solutions," said Peter Wu, Managing Director of ADATA's European operations. "As a key consumer electronics event located in the heart of Europe, IFA will give us the opportunity to demonstrate why we continue to be a leader in DRAM and NAND flash products, but also show how we are leveraging our core competencies to expand our presence in the region, especially in terms of gaming and eSports."

Prices of NAND flash could drop to historic lows of $0.08 per gigabyte in 2019, according to Jim Handy from Objective Analysis, addressing delegates at the 2018 Flash Memory Summit. If you add the cost of the controller, optional DRAM chip, and other low-cost parts that make up an SSD, 480~512 GB drives under $70 could finally be a reality; followed by 1 TB under $120, and 2 TB under $200. Handy attributes the low prices to a catastrophic oversupply of NAND flash in the industry, which could push manufacturers to the brink of economic collapse.

The price drop is also accelerated with the introduction of the QLC (4 bits per cell) technology, which increases densities (and conversely decreases price/GB). Luckily, most NAND flash manufacturers also happen to make DRAM, and are offsetting some of their NAND flash losses with DRAM profits, as DRAM remains in undersupply. The NAND flash price-crash threatens to wipe out conventional hard-disk drives from the consumer-space, at least in matured markets; relegating them to developing markets.

The DRAM market is expected to increase in value some 30% this year, in wake of increased demand and parts shortage due to less-than-adequate production ramp-up to keep up with the demands of modern systems integrators. Doing this, its value will jump to more than $100 Billion in value, marking the first time a semiconductor product category ever surpasses that mark. The 30% increase in value joins an accumulated 78% increase that already occurred in 2017 - a twofold increase in just two years. Who said anything about cryptocurrency having massive increases in value?

IC Insights expects this $100 Billion threshold to be passed this year (a 39% growth), while IBS projects it to only be surpassed by 2019, with a 32% growth for 2018. Still, that's a small differing window which matters little in the grand scheme of things.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today announces the launch of the XPG SPECTRIX D41 TUF Gaming Edition DDR4 RGB memory module. The special edition memory module is TUF Gaming Alliance-certified, which means it has passed rigorous testing to meet the stringent standards of the alliance. While this memory module offers the same great performance and dazzling programmable RGB lighting as the original model, it sports a more combative look via its black heat spreaders with yellow trimming.

The latest analysis on the NAND Flash market by DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, forecasts that the ASP of NAND Flash will drop by around 10% QoQ respectively in 3Q18 and 4Q18. Although 3Q18 heralds the traditional peak season for the sales of consumer electronics, the growth of the end market demand has been weaker than anticipated. At the same time, the supply of 3D-NAND Flash continues to expand.

DRAMeXchange points out that the main reason behind the falling prices is oversupply at various levels. First, the annual shipments for smartphones this year are expected to be just on par with last year's. The replacement demand for smartphones has been sluggish due to the lack of differentiation among products in terms of hardware specifications. Second, notebook shipments were very strong in 1H18, so the seasonal shipment growth for notebooks in 2H18 will be lackluster compared with the growth in the year's first half as the base period. Third, the competition is very intense in the server SSD market. Although demand for server systems is growing steadily, there is an oversupply of server SSDs because too many suppliers are engaging in this profitable segment. Finally, NAND Flash suppliers have raised their output forecasts as they have expanded their production capacity and improved the yield rates of their 64/72-layer 3D-NAND production. Given the above factors that have led to a persistent oversupply, contract prices of various NAND Flash products will remain weak through 2H18.

SK Hynix Inc. today announced that the Company will construct a new semiconductor fabrication plant (or 'the FAB') at its headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi-do, to respond to growing demand for memory chips and to secure a future growth engine.

Construction on the 53,000 m² site in Icheon will begin late 2018 and is slated to be completed in October 2020. SK Hynix will invest 3.5 trillion won in the FAB. The production portfolio of the FAB shall be decided considering future market conditions as well as the Company's technology capability.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass producing the industry's first 2nd-generation of 10-nanometer-class (1y-nm), LPDDR4X (Low Power, Double Data Rate, 4X) DRAM to improve the efficiency and lower the battery drain of today's premium smartphones and other mobile applications. Compared to the mobile DRAM memory chips most used in current flagship mobile devices (1x-nm 16Gb LPDDR4X), the 2nd- generation LPDDR4X DRAM features up to a 10 percent power reduction while maintaining the same data rate of 4,266 megabits per second (Mb/s).

"The advent of 10nm-class mobile DRAM will enable significantly enhanced solutions for next-generation, flagship mobile devices that should first hit the market late this year or the first part of 2019." said Sewon Chun, senior vice president of Memory Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics. "We will continue to grow our premium DRAM lineup to lead the 'high-performance, high capacity, and low power' memory segment to meet the market demand and strengthen our business competitiveness."

Ballistix, a leading global brand of gaming memory, today announced the immediate availability of Ballistix Sport AT memory in support of ASUS' TUF Gaming Alliance. Developed as a collaboration between ASUS, Ballistix, and other trusted industry partners, TUF Gaming Alliance ensures easier building, the best compatibility, and complementary aesthetics from components to cases.

"Our TUF Gaming Alliance relationship with Ballistix, the memory brand of choice for so many gamers, offers customers and partners an exciting new product for PC builds," said Sharon Pan, Division Director of the ASUS Motherboard Channel PM Department. "On the heels of all the positive feedback at Computex 2018, we're looking forward to a successful collaboration with Ballistix as we continue to create products that excel in both performance and aesthetics."

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has successfully developed the industry's first 10-nanometer (nm) class* 8-gigabit (Gb) LPDDR5 DRAM. Since bringing the first 8Gb LPDDR4 to mass production in 2014, Samsung has been setting the stage to transition to the LPDDR5 standard for use in upcoming 5G and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered mobile applications.

The newly-developed 8Gb LPDDR5 is the latest addition to Samsung's premium DRAM lineup, which includes 10nm-class 16Gb GDDR6 DRAM (in volume production since December 2017) and 16Gb DDR5 DRAM (developed in February).

(Editor's Note: We'll see if this statement from Micron is enough to staunch the bleeding on its shares - which it should, since the company says no recognizable impact will exist on its bottom line. If things are as they seem (and yet, they seldom are), this is a checkmate move from Chinese manufacturing companies - eventually supported by the Chinese government - and an interesting way to lock China's voracious DRAM and NAND market to fully domestic manufacturers.)

Micron Technology, Inc., announced that the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court, Fujian Province, China today notified two Chinese subsidiaries of Micron that it has granted a preliminary injunction against those entities in patent infringement cases filed by United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) and Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. (Jinhua). The patent infringement claims of UMC and Jinhua were filed against Micron in retaliation for criminal indictments filed by Taiwan authorities against UMC and three of its employees and a civil lawsuit filed by Micron against UMC and Jinhua in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for the misappropriation of Micron trade secrets.

It's not just Micron, but also Korean DRAM giants Samsung and SK Hynix, that are the latest victims of large-scale industrial espionage by Chinese DRAM makers to steal vital DRAM intellectual property (IP), according to Korea Times. Today's DRAM makers build their products on IP acquired over decades, and that is time Chinese companies do not have, and aren't willing to license from established DRAM makers, either.

"Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have become the target of industrial espionage by Chinese memory chip manufacturers. In semiconductors, patents are critical to the cost structure. The companies have to protect what they have spent decades building. The result is Chinese companies are attempting to infringe on Samsung and SK patents," said a Korean official involved in the investigation of IP theft.

The growth momentum for 2H18 NAND Flash market is expected to be weak, according to the latest report of DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. Coupled with continuous improvements in yield rate and output of 64/72-layer 3D NAND Flash, DRAMeXchange expects the market to approach a balance between supply and demand, the contract prices of NAND Flash products are expected to decline further.

The contract prices of NAND Flash products have been decreasing for two consecutive quarters in 1H18 due to the traditional off-season and capacity expansion of 64/72-layer 3D NAND Flash. During this period, suppliers provided competitive prices for high-density products to boost the memory content per box, aiming to further improve the demand in peak season. Meanwhile, suppliers have postponed further plans of capacity expansion, hoping to moderate the price decline.

Researchers at IBM Zurich and Germany University of RTWH Aachen have developed a new non-volatile phase change memory with monoatomic glassy antimony, which unlike conventional phase-change-materials uses just a single element: antimony (Sb). Traditional phase-change memories use a mix of different materials, which makes things complicated when you try to shrink them down for higher storage densities, as impurities and composition differences negatively affect yields.

The novel approach is based on pure antimony films that are between 3 and 10 nanometers thick, confined between Silicon layers of 40-200 nm thickness. For their prototypes the engineers achieved a switching rate of 50 nanoseconds (20 MHz). While this doesn't sound very fast, the researchers are optimistic that this can be optimized further, their next goal is 10 nanoseconds, which is getting in the region of DRAM speeds.

China's Anti-Monopoly Bureau of Ministry of Commerce visited Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology last year to express its concerns over the high prices of DRAM. Unfortunately, these meetings yielded no results as DRAM prices continued to skyrocket in the first quarter of this year. With their patience exhausted, Chinese antitrust regulators finally launched an investigation into Samsung, Micron, and Hynix, which collectively owns 90% of the global DRAM pie. The three DRAM vendors are allegedly cooperating with the Chinese authorities to shed some light into the whole DRAM price fixing matter. If found guilty, they could face fines between $800 million to $8 billion. The estimated fines were calculated based on the companies' DRAM sales in China between 2016 and 2017.

Whether you believe in coincidence or not, Samsung, Micron, and Hynix have a long history of being partners in crime. The trio, along with Infineon and Elpida Memory, conspired to fix prices on DRAM in the United States from April 1999 and June 2002. Infineon pleaded guilty in 2004 and was fined $160 million. Hynix cracked shortly afterwards and paid $185 million in fines. Elpida got off the hook easy with a $84 million fine, while Samsung took the biggest hit paying up to $300 million. Curiously, Infineon called it quits shortly after the incident, and Micron later acquired Elpida. In other news, China aims to become self-sufficient in the IC department by supporting local manufacturers like Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC).

In their recent earnings call, Micron commented that they have 96-layer 3D NAND technology on track for volume shipments in the second half of 2018. Most of today's SSDs typically use 32-layer technology, with 64-layer flash chips used in some recent releases like the Crucial MX500. 96-layer is the third generation of 3D NAND and increases storage capacity per chip even further which allows smaller and more energy efficient mobile devices to be built. Of course it will be cheaper too, compared to current-generation 64 layer NAND, which should bring SSD pricing down even more, and of course generally help pricing of consumer products which use flash memory.

The second important note from the presentation is that Micron expects 1X nm (18 nm) DRAM production to exceed that of previous generations before the end of this year. Their next-generation 1Y nm (15/16 nm) DRAM is on track to begin production shipments in the second half of 2018, too. As they noted in a previous event, their product and process roadmap for DRAM 1z looks solid and 1-alpha development programs already under way.