TrendForce investigations reveal a significant leap in the DRAM industry for 3Q23, with total revenues soaring to US$13.48 billion—marking 18% QoQ growth. This surge is attributed to a gradual resurgence in demand, prompting buyers to re-energize their procurement activities. Looking ahead to Q4, while suppliers are firmly set on price hikes, with DRAM contract prices expected to rise by approximately 13-18%, demand recovery will not be as robust as in previous peak seasons. Overall, while there is demand for stockpiling, procurement for the server sector remains tentative due to high inventory levels, suggesting limited growth in DRAM industry shipments for Q4.

Three major manufacturers witnessed Q3 revenue growth. Samsung's revenue increased by about 15.9% to US$5.25 billion thanks to stable demand for high-capacity products fueled by AI advancements and the rollout of its 1alpha nm DDR5. SK hynix showcased the most notable growth among manufacturers with a 34.4% increase, reaching about US$4.626 billion and significantly narrowing its market share gap with Samsung to less than 5%. Micron's revenue rose by approximately 4.2% to US$3.075 billion—despite a slight drop in ASP—supported by an upswing in demand and shipment volumes.

ASUS today announced that an international group of elite overclockers has set nine world records and achieved sixteen first-place finishes in a variety of performance benchmarks with ASUS Pro WS WRX90E-SAGE SE and ASUS Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI workstation motherboards. The motherboards leveraged AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 WX-Series and AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series processors which featured up to 96 cores and 192 threads. The group of overclockers included Der8auer, Elmor, Massman, OGS, Safedisk, Seby and Shamino.

Ready for CPU and memory overclocking
For AMD Threadripper 7000 series workstations and high-end desktop (HEDT) models, AMD offers CPU and DRAM overclocking options. To fully leverage the performance of the AMD processors, ASUS has incorporated an innovative dual power supply design on Pro WS WRX90E-SAGE SE and Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI motherboards. Along with robust power delivery and advanced cooling modules, these boards exhibit rock-solid stability during overclocking.

T-FORCE, the gaming brand of the leading memory and storage provider Team Group Inc., continues to push the boundaries of product development. Today, T-FORCE is launching four new gaming SSDs, the T-FORCE G70, G70 PRO, G50, and G50 PRO, which all use the PCIe Gen 4x4 interface. The SSDs feature international manufacturer InnoGrit's controller, which provides outstanding stability.

The G70, G50, and their PRO variants are available in the M.2-2280 form factor and come with patented ultra-thin graphene heat sinks. The G70 PRO also comes with an aluminium alloy heatsink, giving users an additional cooling option. Since every SSD cooling module in this series is compatible with the PS5 SSD expansion slot, both PC and console gamers alike can enjoy the high performance of these brand-new PCIe 4.0 SSDs. The T-FORCE G70 and G70 PRO SSDs have read speeds of up to 7000 MB/s, while the G50 and G50 PRO SSDs can clock up to 5000 MB/s. The T-FORCE G70 and G50 SSDs support SLC cache technology, and their PRO variants support both DRAM and SLC caching, giving players options to fit their needs. All four M.2 2280 SSDs use controllers produced by international manufacturer InnoGrit, which provide excellent stability and peace of mind for gamers.

International Data Corporation (IDC) has upgraded its Semiconductor Market Outlook by calling a bottom and return to growth that accelerates next year. IDC raised its September 2023 revenue outlook from $518.8 billion to $526.5 billion in a new forecast. Revenue expectations for 2024 were also raised from $625.9 billion to $632.8 billion as IDC believes the U.S. market will remain resilient from a demand standpoint and China will begin recovering by the second half of 2024 (2H24).

IDC sees better semiconductor growth visibility as the long inventory correction subsides in two of the largest market segments: PCs and smartphones. Automotive and Industrials elevated inventory levels are expected to return to normal levels in 2H24 as electrification continues to drive semiconductor content over the next decade. Technology and large flagship product introductions will drive more semiconductor content and value across market segments in 2024 through 2026, including the introduction of AI PCs and AI Smartphones next year and a much-needed improvement in memory ASPs and DRAM bit volume.

SK hynix Inc. announced today that it has started supplying its customers with 16 gigabyte (GB) packages of Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo (LPDDR5T), the fastest mobile DRAM available today that can transfer 9.6 gigabits per second (Gbps). Since the successful development of its LPDDR5T in January, SK hynix has been preparing to commercialize the product by conducting performance verification with global mobile application processor (AP) manufacturers.

SK hynix explained that LPDDR5T is the optimal memory to maximize the performance of smartphones, with the highest speed ever achieved. The company also emphasized that it would continue to expand the application range of this product and lead the generation shift in the mobile DRAM sector. The LPDDR5T 16 GB package operates in the ultra-low voltage range of 1.01 to 1.12 V set by the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC), and can process 77 GB of data per second, which is equivalent to transferring 15 full high-definition (FHD) movies in one second.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), today demonstrated its industry leadership by announcing its 32Gb monolithic die-based 128 GB DDR5 RDIMM memory featuring best-in-class performance of up to 8000 MT/s to support data center workloads today and into the future. These high-capacity, high-speed memory modules are engineered to meet the performance and data-handling needs of a wide range of mission-critical applications in data center and cloud environments, including artificial intelligence (AI), in-memory databases (IMDBs) and efficient processing for multithreaded, multicore count general compute workloads.

Powered by Micron's industry-leading 1β (1-beta) technology, the 32Gb DDR5 DRAM die-based 128 GB DDR5 RDIMM memory delivers the following enhancements over competitive 3DS through-silicon via (TSV) products:

• more than 45% improved bit density
• up to 24% improved energy efficiency
• up to 16% lower latency
• up to a 28% improvement in AI training performance

Thanks to the TMTPost interview with the Global Vice President and China President of ASML, Shen Bo, the Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer has revealed that around 1,400 of its deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography and metrology machines are currently installed in China. The company is expected to achieve a global output of 600 DUV equipment units by the end of 2025. Shen Bo stated that the company aims to install 500-600 units of DUV machinery in China by late 2025 or early 2026. The growth in ASML's Chinese revenues was notably high, with China contributing 46% of the company's system sales in 3Q 2023, representing an 82% revenue increase from the previous quarter.

China plans to build 25 12-inch wafer fabs in the next five years, covering logic wafers, DRAM, and MEMS production. ASML currently has a substantial presence in China, with 16 offices, 12 warehouses, distribution centers, development centers, training centers, and maintenance centers. The company employs over 1,600 people for its China operations. Despite the export restrictions imposed by the US government, ASML anticipates that the new measures will have little impact on its financial outlook for 2023 as it strives to meet the growing demand for semiconductor manufacturing equipment in the global market.

Kingston Technology, a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced it has been ranked top third-party DRAM module supplier in the world, according to the latest rankings by revenue from analyst firm TrendForce. Kingston retains its number 1 position with an estimated 78.12% market share on $13.5 billion (USD) revenue. TrendForce states DRAM module sales in 2022 saw a 4.6% YoY decline across the industry. Kingston's revenue showed a slight decrease but held its position as the global leader for the 20th consecutive year.

According to the report, the world's top five memory module houses accounted for 90% of total sales in 2022 with Kingston maintaining its dominant market share of 78.12%. Consumer buying trends for electronic products took a hit from high inflation but Kingston's robust brand scale along with its comprehensive product supply chain limited its decline, keeping it firmly at the top of market share rankings.

Samsung Electronics today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. Total consolidated revenue was KRW 67.40 trillion, a 12% increase from the previous quarter, mainly due to new smartphone releases and higher sales of premium display products. Operating profit rose sequentially to KRW 2.43 trillion based on strong sales of flagship models in mobile and strong demand for displays, as losses at the Device Solutions (DS) Division narrowed.

The Memory Business reduced losses sequentially as sales of high valued-added products and average selling prices somewhat increased. Earnings in system semiconductors were impacted by a delay in demand recovery for major applications, but the Foundry Business posted a new quarterly high for new backlog from design wins. The mobile panel business reported a significant increase in earnings on the back of new flagship model releases by major customers, while the large panel business narrowed losses in the quarter. The Device eXperience (DX) Division achieved solid results due to robust sales of premium smartphones and TVs. Revenue at the Networks Business declined in major overseas markets as mobile operators scaled back investments.

Montage Technology, a leading data processing and interconnect IC company, today announced it has taken the lead in trial production of the 3rd-generation DDR5 Registering Clock Driver (RCD03) designed for use in DDR5 RDIMMs. With its blazingly fast 6400 MT/s data rate, the RCD03 sets a new bar for DDR5 memory performance in upcoming server platforms. It unlocks dramatic capacity, bandwidth, and latency improvements to meet the growing demands of data center, cloud, and AI applications.

The RCD03 marks a major advancement in Montage's continued role as an innovator driving rapid DDR5 developments. This chip achieves a 14.3% speed increase over the 2nd-gen DDR5 RCD and a 33.3% increase over the 1st--gen, making it one of the fastest DDR5 memory interface solutions available today.

SK hynix Inc., today reported the financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. The company recorded revenues of 9.066 trillion won, operating losses of 1.792 trillion won and net losses of 2.185 trillion won in the three-month period. The operating and net margins were a negative 20% and 24%, respectively. After bottoming out in the first quarter, the business has been on a steady recovery track, helped by growing demand for products such as high-performance memory chips, the company said.

"Revenues grew 24%, while operating losses narrowed 38%, compared with the previous quarter, thanks to strong demand for high-performance mobile flagship products and HBM3, a key product for AI applications, and high-capacity DDR5," the company said, adding that a turnaround of the DRAM business following two quarters of losses is particularly hopeful. SK hynix attributed the growth in sales to increased shipments of both DRAM and NAND and a rise in the average selling price.

SK hynix Inc. announced today that it has started commercialization of the LPDDR5T (Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo), the world's fastest DRAM for mobile with 9.6 Gbps speed. The company said that it has obtained the validation that the LPDDR5T is compatible with Qualcomm Technologies' new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform, marking the industry's first case for such product to be verified by the U.S. company.

SK hynix has proceeded with the compatibility validation of the LPDDR5T, following the completion of the development in January, with support from Qualcomm Technologies. The completion of the process means that it is compatible with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. With the validation process with Qualcomm Technologies, a leader in wireless telecommunication products and services, and other major mobile AP (Application Processor) providers successfully completed, SK hynix expects the range of the LPDDR5T adoption to grow rapidly.

TrendForce reports that consumer appetite for electronic products took a hit from high inflation, with global DRAM module sales in 2022 reaching US$17.3 billion—a 4.6% YoY decline. Revenue performance varied significantly among module makers due to the different domains they supply.

TrendForce's data indicated that the top five memory suppliers in 2022 accounted for 90% of total sales, with the top ten collectively capturing 96% of global market revenue. Kingston maintained its dominant market share of 78%. Even with a slight revenue dip, it held steadfast to its position as the global leader. Despite poor end-market demand, Kingston's robust brand scale, along with its comprehensive product supply chain, limited its revenue decline to a modest 5.3%, keeping it firmly at the top of market share rankings.

Jung-Bae Lee, President and Head of Memory Business of Samsung Electronics, the world's largest NAND memory supplier, has noted in the blog post that Samsung plans to develop its 9th Generation V-NAND memory with over 300 layers, aiming for mass production in 2024. Samsung's V-NAND uses a double-stack structure and is expected to have more active layers than its competitors' 3D NAND memory, such as SK Hynix's forthcoming 321-layer memory. The increase in layers allows Samsung to enhance storage density and performance in its future 3D NAND devices, focusing on input/output (I/O) speed. While the specific performance details of Samsung's 9th Generation V-NAND remain undisclosed, the memory is expected to be used in next-generation PCIe SSDs with the PCIe 5.0 standard.

Jung-Bae Lee has noted: "New structural and material innovations will be critical in the upcoming era of sub-10-nanometer (nm) DRAM and 1,000-layer vertical V-NAND. As such, we are developing 3D stacked structures and new materials for DRAM while increasing layer count, decreasing height, and minimizing cell interference for V-NAND." The 9th installment of V-NAND, scheduled for 2024, is utilizing 11 nm-class DRAM. Additionally, the blog post reassures the commitment to CXL Memory Modules (CMM), which will enable the composable infrastructure of next-generation systems, especially with high-capacity SSDs powered by V-NAND.

Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world's largest semiconductor companies, today marked a historic day with the opening of its new cutting-edge assembly and test facility in Batu Kawan, Penang, alongside the celebration of Micron's 45th anniversary. A ceremony officiated by Chief Minister of Penang, Yang Amat Berhormat Tuan Chow Kon Yeow, underscored the regional significance of Micron's expansion, highlighting the company's four and a half decades of innovation and excellence.

Micron previously invested $1 billion and will add up to another billion including construction and full equipping of this new facility over the next few years in Penang to increase factory space to a total of 1.5 million square feet. This expansion enables Micron Malaysia to boost production output and further strengthen its assembly and test capabilities, allowing it to supply leading-edge NAND, PCDRAM and SSD modules to meet the growing demand for transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous or electric vehicles.

According to the editorial blog post published on the Samsung blog by SangJoon Hwang, Executive Vice President and Head of the DRAM Product & Technology Team at Samsung Electronics, we have information that High-Bandwidth Memory 4 (HBM4) is coming in 2025. In the recent timeline of HBM development, we saw the first appearance of HBM memory in 2015 with the AMD Radeon R9 Fury X. The second-generation HBM2 appeared with NVIDIA Tesla P100 in 2016, and the third-generation HBM3 saw the light of the day with NVIDIA Hopper GH100 GPU in 2022. Currently, Samsung has developed 9.8 Gbps HBM3E memory, which will start sampling to customers soon.

However, Samsung is more ambitious with development timelines this time, and the company expects to announce HBM4 in 2025, possibly with commercial products in the same calendar year. Interestingly, the HBM4 memory will have some technology optimized for high thermal properties, such as non-conductive film (NCF) assembly and hybrid copper bonding (HCB). The NCF is a polymer layer that enhances the stability of micro bumps and TSVs in the chip, so memory solder bump dies are protected from shock. Hybrid copper bonding is an advanced semiconductor packaging method that creates direct copper-to-copper connections between semiconductor components, enabling high-density, 3D-like packaging. It offers high I/O density, enhanced bandwidth, and improved power efficiency. It uses a copper layer as a conductor and oxide insulator instead of regular micro bumps to increase the connection density needed for HBM-like structures.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced it has extended its industry-leading 1β (1-beta) process node technology with the introduction of 16Gb DDR5 memory. With demonstrated in-system functionality at speeds up to 7,200 MT/s, Micron's 1β DDR5 DRAM is now shipping to all data center and PC customers. Micron's 1β-based DDR5 memory with advanced high-k CMOS device technology, 4-phase clocking and clock-sync provides up to a 50% performance uplift and 33% improvement in performance per watt over the previous generation.

As CPU core counts increase to meet the demands of data center workloads, the need for higher memory bandwidth and capacities grows significantly to overcome the 'memory wall' challenge while optimizing the total cost of ownership for customers. Micron's 1β DDR5 DRAM allows computational capabilities to scale with higher performance enabling applications like artificial intelligence (AI) training and inference, generative AI, data analytics, and in-memory databases (IMDB) across data center and client platforms. The new 1β DDR5 DRAM product line offers current module densities in speeds ranging from 4,800 MT/s up to 7,200 MT/s for use in data center and client applications.

Kingston FURY, the high-performance division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, announced today the updated new look of Kingston FURY Renegade DDR4 memory.

Kingston FURY Renegade DDR4 delivers amazing speeds up to 5333 MT/s, making it the ultimate choice for power users. The bold two-tone black heat spreaders are on double duty as they not only enhance the look of your build but also manages heat while you're deep at work or play to ensure optimal performance. For those seeking an extra dose of excitement, Kingston FURY Renegade DDR4 RGB boasts a stylish two-tone black heat spreader illuminated by 10 LEDs to create dynamic RGB lighting effects kept in lock-step by Kingston FURY's patented Infrared Sync Technology. Beyond its appearance it doesn't compromise on functionality, offering speeds up to 4600MT/s allowing users to boost frame rates, improve workflow, and edit game play in a flash.

Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world's largest semiconductor companies and the only U.S.-based manufacturer of memory, will today celebrate the start of construction on the nation's first new memory manufacturing fab in 20 years. Company executives will join Idaho Governor Brad Little, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean, other community partners and team members to mark the milestone with a ceremonial concrete pour at Micron's Boise headquarters on the 45th anniversary of the company's founding.

Just over a year ago, Micron announced its plans to invest approximately $15 billion through the end of the decade to construct a new fab for leading-edge memory manufacturing, to be co-located with the company's R&D epicenter in its hometown of Boise. Through the lifespan of the project, Micron will directly infuse $15.3 billion into the Idaho economy and directly spend $13.0 billion with Idaho businesses. The project will create over 17,000 new Idaho jobs, including 2,000 Micron direct jobs, furthering the need for a diverse, highly skilled workforce.

TSMC today announced the new 3Dblox 2.0 open standard and major achievements of its Open Innovation Platform (OIP) 3DFabric Alliance at the TSMC 2023 OIP Ecosystem Forum. The 3Dblox 2.0 features early 3D IC design capability that aims to significantly boost design efficiency, while the 3DFabric Alliance continues to drive memory, substrate, testing, manufacturing, and packaging integration. TSMC continues to push the envelope of 3D IC innovation, making its comprehensive 3D silicon stacking and advanced packaging technologies more accessible to every customer.

"As the industry shifted toward embracing 3D IC and system-level innovation, the need for industry-wide collaboration has become even more essential than it was when we launched OIP 15 years ago," said Dr. L.C. Lu, TSMC fellow and vice president of Design and Technology Platform. "As our sustained collaboration with OIP ecosystem partners continues to flourish, we're enabling customers to harness TSMC's leading process and 3DFabric technologies to reach an entirely new level of performance and power efficiency for the next-generation artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), and mobile applications."

CORSAIR, a world leader in enthusiast components for gamers, creators, and PC builders, today launched the much anticipated latest addition to its award-winning memory line-up, DOMINATOR TITANIUM DDR5 memory. Built using some of the fastest DDR5 ICs alongside patented CORSAIR DHX cooling technology for improved overclocking potential, DOMINATOR TITANIUM continues the DOMINATOR legacy with a stunning design and blazing performance.

Sporting an elegant, fresh new aesthetic and built using premium materials and components, DOMINATOR TITANIUM DDR5 memory will be available for both Intel and AMD platforms, supporting Intel XMP 3.0 when paired with 12th and 13th-Gen Core processors or AMD EXPO for Ryzen 7000 CPUs. These technologies enable easy overclocking in just a couple of clicks on compatible platforms.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has developed the industry's first Low Power Compression Attached Memory Module (LPCAMM) form factor, which is expected to transform the DRAM market for PCs and laptops - and potentially even data centers. Samsung's groundbreaking development for its 7.5 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) LPCAMM has completed system verification through Intel's platform. Historically, PCs and laptops have conventionally used LPDDR DRAM or DDR-based So-DIMMs. While LPDDR is compact, it's permanently attached to the motherboard, making it challenging to replace during repairs or upgrades. On the other hand, So-DIMMs can be attached or detached easily but have limitations with performance and other physical features.

LPCAMM overcomes the shortcomings of both LPDDR and So-DIMMs, addressing the increased demand for more efficient yet compact devices. Being a detachable module, LPCAMM offers enhanced flexibility for PC and laptop manufacturers during the production process. Compared to So-DIMM, LPCAMM occupies up to 60% less space on the motherboard. This allows more efficient use of devices' internal space while also improving performance by up to 50% and power efficiency by up to 70%. LPDDR's power-saving features have made it an attractive option for servers, since it could potentially improve total cost of operation (TCO) efficiency. However, using LPDDR can create operational difficulties such as the need to replace the entire motherboard when upgrading a server's DRAM specifications. LPCAMM offers a solution to these challenges, creating significant potential for it to become the solution of choice for future data centers and servers.

This past weekend, Micron broke ground on what will be a new semiconductor assembly plant in Gujarat, India. The new facility is said to cover almost 0.4 square kilometres of land or 93 acres, on which phase one will include a 46.5 thousand square metre clean room. The first phase of the project is said to be built by Tata Projects and it's expected to start operating as early as the end of 2024, which seems somewhat optimistic considering how long it can take to build clean rooms of this size in other countries that have much more experience in building such facilities.

Micron is said to be investing a total of US$2.7 billion at the facility, although phase one has a budget of US$825 million as a first step. The full project is said to take five years to complete and is expected to bring some 5,000 direct jobs at the Micron plant. The plant will be a first-of-its-kind in India and Micron will be using it to assemble DRAM and NAND flash. Some of the investment is coming from the Indian government, but the reports don't mention how big of a share the government has contributed.

SK hynix announced on September 22 that it showcased its latest memory technologies and products at Intel Innovation 2023 held September 19-20 in the western U.S. city of San Jose, California. Hosted by Intel since 2019, Intel Innovation is an annual IT exhibition which brings together the technology company's customers and partners to share the latest developments in the industry. At this year's event held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, SK hynix showcased its advanced semiconductor memory products which are essential in the generative AI era under the slogan "Pioneer Tomorrow With the Best."

Products that garnered the most interest were HBM3, which supports the high-speed performance of AI accelerators, and DDR5 RDIMM, a DRAM module for servers with 1bnm process technology. As one of SK hynix's core technologies, HBM3 has established the company as a trailblazer in AI memory. SK hynix plans to further strengthen its position in the market by mass-producing HBM3E (Extended) from 2024. Meanwhile, DDR5 RDIMM with 1bnm, or the 5th generation of the 10 nm process technology, also offers outstanding performance. In addition to supporting unprecedented transfer speeds of more than 6,400 megabits per second (Mbps), this low-power product helps customers simultaneously reduce costs and improve ESG performance.

T-CREATE, the creator sub-brand of the global memory provider Team Group, today launched the T-CREATE MASTER DDR5 OC R-DIMM, an overclocking DDR5 ECC Registered DIMM memory. T-CREATE's MASTER series is designed specifically for workstations and servers. With its high specifications and large capacity, it fully satisfies the needs of professionals in handling large-scale projects, analyzing large data sets, and running multiple specialized applications concurrently. The T-CREATE MASTER DDR5 OC R-DIMM features a one-piece heat spreader with ventilation holes and thermally conductive silicone for quick heat dissipation. It also has on-die ECC, which allows systems to run more stably and provide excellent performance.

The T-CREATE MASTER memory module is an overclocking ECC Registered DIMM memory available in frequencies of 6000 MHz, 6400 MHz, and 6800 MHz. When the module is paired with workstation motherboards, memory capacity can reach up to a massive 384 GB, allowing professional creators to quickly complete all types of work and enjoy the creative flexibility that comes with large capacities. In addition to the on-die ECC that corrects bit errors within the DRAM chip, the MASTER memory also supports an ECC feature that corrects errors outside the chip and fixes data corruption, allowing for stable operation and greater peace of mind when creating. The MASTER R-DIMM is compatible with W790 series workstation motherboards and is made for creative professionals, developers, and engineers. When combined with the powerful computing of the latest Intel Xeon processors, the T-CREATE MASTER DDR5 OC R-DIMM memory delivers incredible performance and stability for content creation, graphic rendering, and the demanding applications of high-end workstations.