From PC World: We all know RAM prices have skyrocketed. We all know why—data center demand. We even know that this won’t end any time soon, barring a collapse of the AI sector. You’ve heard these talking points endlessly in the last couple of months.
Less hammered on: The possible coming developments from this madness. Sure, we’ve already seen direct consequences like Micron’s deep-sixing of its 30-year-old Crucial consumer brand. But as touched on in this week’s discussion with former Anandtech writer and More Than Moore chief analyst Dr. Ian Cutress, the progression of memory technology appears far less linear than before. Literally.
One tantalizing development that came up during our conversation was stacked DDR memory—think of it as somewhat similar in concept to AMD’s approach with its 3D V-Cache processors. Called “Z-Angle” memory, this new architecture is under development by SoftBank subsidiary Saimemory, in partnership with Intel. As Ian describes it, the effort is to “essentially grow DRAM on top of chips,” where DRAM is built layer by layer on top of a CPU wafer, in order to not just compete with HBM in data center applications, but outperform with higher capacity, greater bandwidth, and lower power consumption. But this approach could find its way to consumer products as well—for example, smartphones.
But other, less positive outcomes hover in the air as well. In almost the next breath while discussing Z-Angle memory, Ian mentioned the threat of annihilation for smaller memory makers—those who put memory onto modules. If unable to get enough memory to maintain revenue, they could fold. That would hit us consumers hard, and prolong the rebound on PC building.
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