Peak season demand and surging prices for DRAM products across different applications resulted in an 18.2% sequential growth in the global DRAM revenue for the final quarter of 2016, reports DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce.

Smartphone shipments peaked in the fourth quarter on account of the traditional busy season. Chinese smartphone brands continued to post strong sales while Apple benefitted from the release of iPhone 7. "Rising demand for mobile DRAM kept squeezing the industry's production capacity for PC DRAM," said Avril Wu, research director of DRAMeXchange. "Contract prices of PC DRAM modules increased by more than 30% sequentially on average in the fourth quarter due to insufficient market supply. Server DRAM lagged behind PC and mobile DRAM in terms of price hike during the same period, but it is expected to catch up in the first quarter of this year."

After finally reaching mature yields (comparable to those of planar NAND processes), Micron's 32-layer first generation 3D NAND has grown increasingly prominent in the company's NAND output. Now, the company is looking to ramp-up production of their (currently sampling) 64-layer 3D NAND, promising "meaningful output" by the end of December 2017, looking for an 80% increase in total GB per wafer and a 30% decrease in production costs.

When it comes to the graphics subsystem memory, Micron is looking to transition their 20nm production to a "1x nm" (most likely 16nm) node, in a bid to improve cost per GB by around $20, with introduction of 16nm GDDR5 memory to be introduced later this year. However, GDDR5X volume is expected to grow significantly, in a bid to satisfy bandwidth-hungry uses through GPUs (like NVIDIA's GTX 1080 and potentially the upcoming 1080 Ti) and networking, with GDDR6 memory being introduced by the end of 2017 or early 2018. The company is still mum on actual consumer products based on their interpretation of the 3D XPoint products through their QuantX brand, though work is already under way on the second and third generation specifications of this memory, with Micron planning an hitherto unknown (in significance and product type) presence in the consumer market by the end of this year.

There will be no respite from the rising prices of DRAM chips over 2017, according to a report by Taiwan-based industry observer DigiTimes. Prices of DRAM chips directly affect DDR4 memory modules. Pei-Ing Lee, president of Nanya Technology, a DRAM maker, said that DRAM prices will continue to rally (rise) over the second quarter of 2017, but could stabilize (not necessarily fall) over the second half of the year.

The stability of DRAM prices could still depend on the capex plans of major DRAM manufacturers. The rise in DRAM prices is being attributed to tight supply. Nanya is upgrading its production lines to the new 20 nm node, with early production by the end of Q1-2017. Prices of consumer DDR4 memory modules have nearly doubled over the past six months. A typical 32 GB dual-channel DDR4 memory kit, which could be had for a little over USD $90 in Summer 2016, is now priced around $170.

At CES 2017, Plextor announced their next SSD product line. Dubbed the M8Se, these will be restricted to NVMe SSDs with 15nm 3-bit-per-cell TLC of Toshiba manufacture, ranging from 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB and 1TB capacities leveraged by Marvell's Eldora controller.

The new mid-range NVMe SSD uses a new heatsink design (slight cost-reduction when compared with the one the M8Pe carries), that Plextor says will improve cooling by up to 20% - convenient, since throttling does happen with NVMe based SSDs - and particularly with Marvell's Eldora controller - as it did with Plextor's M8Pe line of SSDs. The card also features blue accent lighting. Plextor will also sell a heatsink-less M8PeGN model in the M.2 form factor.

CORSAIR, a world leader in enthusiast memory, high-performance gaming hardware and PC components today announced its readiness for the new 7th Generation Intel Core processors and Intel 200 series motherboards, paving the way for a new generation of performance PCs. With full compatibility on CORSAIR Performance DDR4 and the award-winning range Hydro Series liquid CPU coolers and wide-reaching compatibility on quiet, efficient CORSAIR PSUs, CORSAIR is ready to help enthusiasts squeeze every ounce of performance from their next PC build.

With DDR4 performance frequencies skyrocketing beyond 4,000MHz and kit densities of up to 64GB, CORSAIR has the memory your PC needs to not just run fast, but look great. CORSAIR Dominator Platinum, Vengeance LED or Vengeance LPX DDR4 make system builds look one of a kind and are built for overclocking to push DRAM frequencies even higher. CORSAIR is the industry leader in high-speed Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory, and with more Intel XMP certified DDR4 kits than any other manufacturer, CORSAIR is committed to compatibility and ensuring memory runs at the speed it claims. What's more, all CORSAIR current dual-channel DDR4 kits are fully compatible with both the new 7th Generation Intel Core Processors and new Intel 200 Series Chipsets, so you can easily choose the memory that's right for your build.

SK Hynix Inc. announced it will construct a new memory semiconductor FAB in Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do to meet increasing NAND Flash demand. This is a part of a mid/long-term investment plan that SK Hynix declared at M14 completion ceremony in August 2015. At that time, the Company said it could spend 46 trillion won to set up 3 new FABs in Icheon and Cheongju including the M14.

The new FAB will be located in a Cheongju Technopolis site. SK Hynix starts a design within next month then begins construction of the shell and the cleanroom in August 2017 to be completed in June 2019 with total investment of 2.2 trillion won. Equipment installation into the FAB shall be decided considering market conditions as well as the Company's migration plans.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, is thrilled to announce the Trident Z RGB Series - the world's most revolutionary RGB lighting DDR4 memory kit. Requiring no additional power connections, this incredible feat of engineering bares pure RGB lighting across an uncovered full-length light bar on the award-winning Trident Z series heatspreader design.

By default, the Trident Z RGB will display a rainbow of colors in a wave-style lighting effect, illuminating any system with a myriad of hues. Further lighting effects and color customizations can be controlled and chosen through software, scheduled for a February 2017 release.

Samsung Electronics, announced today that it is introducing the industry's first 8-gigabyte (GB) LPDDR4 (low power, double data rate 4) mobile DRAM package, which is expected to greatly improve mobile user experiences, especially for those using Ultra HD, large-screen devices. The 8GB mobile DRAM package utilizes four of the newest 16 gigabit (Gb) LPDDR4 memory chips and advanced 10-nanometer (nm)-class process technology.

"The advent of our powerful 8GB mobile DRAM solution will enable more capable next-generation, flagship mobile devices around the world," said Joo Sun Choi, executive vice president of Memory Sales and Marketing at Samsung Electronics. "We will continue to provide advanced memory solutions offering the highest values and leading-edge benefits to meet the escalating needs of devices having dual camera, 4K UHD and VR features."

Thanks to AMD's incorporation of an ARM-based "AMD Secure Processor" in their upcoming ZEN micro-architecture, the company is poised to offer something competitor Intel's microprocessors yet don't: memory encryption. This processor, and its underlying technologies, could prove to be a stepping-stone for AMD towards regaining lost server market share. Essentially, because in a market ever more steered by cloud computing considerations, it allows for the client's data to be encrypted at every moment of the work chain. Assuming all works as intended, for the first time not even cloud providers, with either hypervisor-level privileges or even physical access to the servers, will be able to carry out any malicious actions against their clients.

One only has to consider the writing on the wall: Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2018, 30% of Microsoft's revenue will stem from its cloud services; Amazon Web Services (AWS) generated $7.88B in revenue on Q4 2015, up 69% over 2014; and worldwide spending on public cloud services by itself will grow from $70B in 2015 to an estimated $141B in 2019. Cloud computing is here to stay, and with security being as important as it is for some businesses, this is an important area of investment for AMD. This "AMD Secure Processor" will work on essentially two fronts: SME (Secure Memory Encryption) and SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization), backed by an hardware-based SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm).

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launched theXPG SX8000 SSD, which uses an M.2 form factor loaded with 3D MLC NAND Flash and an SMI 2260controller. The SX8000 meets NVMe 1.2 specifications and connects directly to motherboards via PCI Express 3.0 x4 (PCIe 3x4) to deliver 2.4GB/s read and 1GB/s write, with 100K/140K IOPS. The SX8000 arrives in diverse capacities (128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB), ensuring a new generation of SSD performance is available to more users. A slightly faster version fitted with an attractive XPG heatsink will release by the end of October, promising an aesthetic bonus for case modding enthusiasts.

The XPG SX8000 connects to desktop and notebook PCs via low profile M.2 2280 and channels data through PCI Express 3.0 x4 (four lane). The low latency and big bandwidth of PCIe enable up to 2.4GB/s read and 1GB/s write - four times the read and twice the write performance of average SATA 6Gb/s SSDs. Random 4K IOPS figures are 100K read and 140K write, also significantly more than SATA-based drives.The SX8000 features full NVMe 1.2 compatibility, powering a large performance boost that means users notice gains in real world scenarios, especially loading times within games that require heavy asset streaming and in professional applications such as graphics and audio rendering.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launched XPG FlameDDR4 memory modules. Featuring a sleek heatsink emblazoned with a flame design, XPG Flame DDR4 is available in 288-pin U-DIMM and 260-pin SO-DIMM. This marks the first XPG memory for notebooks, and makes XPG Flame an appealing choice for gamers, overclocking, and competitive benchmarkers on desktops, notebooks, and small form factor (SFF) PCs. XPG Flame uses the most carefully-sorted and assembled boards and chips for assured quality and stability. Customers can choose modules in 4 GB, 8 GB, and 16 GB densities, with speeds up to 3000 MHz on U-DIMM and 2800 MHz on SO-DIMM. All XPG Flame modules support Intel XMP 2.0 (Extreme Memory Profile) specifications and ship with a lifetime ADATA product warranty.

Following the launch of bestselling XPG Z1 DDR4 memory and lucrative XPG Dazzle LED DDR4, XPG Flame brings a highly attractive option for desktop gamers, overclockers, and tuners. With a sleek low profile heatsink, XPG Flame U-DIMM modules use a 10-layer black PCB with 2oz of copper. All of these ensure stable performance and a long module lifespan in every situation, from the most system-stressing games to competitive overclocking and benchmarking. Stock clocks range from 2400 MHz to 3000 MHz, driven by 1.2V to 1.35V. Higher speeds are quite readily possible thanks to the premium chips, circuitry, and PCB materials employed. Intel XMP 2.0 support means users have more ways to access memory overclocking, including directly from the operating system rather than via more complex BIOS settings.

Patriot, a leading manufacturer of high performance computer memory, SSDs, gaming peripherals, consumer flash storage solutions and mobile accessories, today announced the immediate release of its new extreme performance Viper 4 and high performance Viper Elite DDR4 in 3733 MHz dual kits.

Expanding Patriot's extreme performance and high performance DDR4 memory lines, the 3733 MHz Viper 4 and Viper Elite dual channel kits are designed for optimal use with the latest Intel X99 and 100 series motherboards. With consumers utilizing more taxing professional applications, large capacity PC games and having a need for higher memory optimization, the Viper 4 and Viper Elite will present unsurpassed performance and reliability that only 30 years of DRAM experience can deliver.

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced the availability of Nonvolatile DIMM (NVDIMM) server memory to help companies protect data in the event of a system power loss. Historically, companies have used uninterruptible power supplies, solid state drives (SSDs), mechanical hard drives (HDDs) or other devices to ensure the security of critical data. While this method of preserving critical data has been effective, the backup and restore times have been very long due to the latency and write times of the SSD and HDD. Today's applications such as relational databases, scale-out storage, data analytics, and in-memory databases require much faster backup and restore times.

Crucial NVDIMM server memory combines DRAM and NAND onto a single module, providing the performance of DRAM with the persistence of NAND. In the event of a power loss, the NVDIMM will back up all DRAM data to the NAND while utilising a backup power source, known as an ultracapacitor. The DRAM on the NVDIMM ensures critical data can be operated on from a low-latency memory space without the risk of losing it. The NAND on the module ensures that the contents of the DRAM are not lost during a power failure, making the DRAM persistent. When power is restored to the system, the data in the NAND is restored on the DRAM.

As the technology of CPU and GPU keeps evolving, it is no doubt that Virtual Reality has explored itself in mainstream lately. Games and apps applied to VR devices have already grabbed gamers' attention worldwide and everyone just can't wait to jump into the bandwagon of games. However, it actually takes more than VR device to experience the alternative reality. HyperX, a division of Kingston Technology, the independent world leader in memory products, provides a total solution for gamers to upgrade the system and make sure it keeps up with the suggested requirements.

To have nice and smooth VR gaming experience, it's recommended to have at least 8GB modules within the system, and 16 GB if you need to work on 3D rendering or video editing. For gamers who want to upgrade the RAMs, the upcoming Predator DDR4 at Kingston will end the wait. The aggressive design offers greater heat dissipation to optimize reliability while the black aluminum heat spreader and black PCB complements the look of the latest PC hardware. With fast frequencies up to 3333 MHz and total capacities up to 64GB, Predator DDR4 will make sure you feel no stutter in virtual reality.

Even as Crucial's 2.5-inch SATA MX300 drive is nowhere close to market launch, its M.2 cousin is already unveiled. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the drive appears to feature SATA 6 Gb/s interface, logically with the same controller, DRAM cache, and 3D stacked TLC NAND flash memory as the 2.5-inch SATA MX300. One could speculate looking at that large bank of SMT capcitors that the drive offers some sort of power failure protection that finishes up active write operations before powering down 'gracefully.' Crucial did not put out performance numbers.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of highperformance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launched XPG Dazzle,itsfirst line of LED DDR4 memory modules. The modules feature illuminated LED strips and DDR4 specificationsforan exciting look that complements their high performance and power efficiency. Utilizing patented LED memory module technology by AVEXIR, XPG Dazzle makes PCs much more eye-catching to meet growing demand by case modders, PC enthusiasts, and gamers for unique, colorful, and vibrant system builds.

XPG Dazzle LED DDR4 memory modules maintain and evolve the aggressive but sleek style of XPG products, featuring a tough outline, cool color combinations, and their own unique highlight in the form of a shining LED strip built into the heatsink. With a special design and alluring red LED, XPG Dazzle accentuates chassis appearance and revitalizes performance PCs, whether for overclocking, gaming, or pure case modding showcases. XPG Dazzle memory modules are available in different kits: 8GBx2, 8GB x4, 16GBx2, and 16GBx4, giving users greater flexibility when assembling high-end systems.

DRAM and NAND flash giant Micron Technology has begun sampling its next-generation GDDR5X memory chips to customers. The company is ready with chips in the 8 Gb (1 GB) and 16 Gb (2 GB) densities, making it possible for GPU makers to build graphics cards with 8 GB and 16 GB total onboard memory, respectively, over a 256-bit wide memory bus, by using just one chip per 32-bit channel.

Apart from 8 Gb and 16 Gb densities, Micron's GDDR5X chips offer GPU makers a transition from GDDR5 with minimal engineering, since the standard has similar electricals to its predecessor, and a similar BOM structure; while offering up to double the clock speeds to GDDR5, and running at a lower voltage of 1.35V. Both AMD and NVIDIA have reportedly expressed interest in building graphics cards with GDDR5X.

Team Group announced the Team Xtreem DDR4-4000 memory module. Available in heatspreader colors of black and silver, the module comes with density of 4 GB, and serves up its rated speed of DDR4-4000 MHz (PC4-32000), with timings of 18-22-22-40, and module voltage of 1.35V. The modules are cooled by chunky aluminium heatspreaders, making contact with a copper ground-layer of the module's PCB, besides the DRAM chips, for additional cooling. Team Group is offering lifetime warranty with these modules, which are yet to be priced. The modules will be sold in single-piece and 8 GB dual-channel kits.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., announced today that it has begun mass producing the industry's first 4-gigabyte (GB) DRAM package based on the second-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM2) interface, for use in high performance computing (HPC), advanced graphics and network systems, as well as enterprise servers. Samsung's new HBM solution will offer unprecedented DRAM performance - more than seven times faster than the current DRAM performance limit, allowing faster responsiveness for high-end computing tasks including parallel computing, graphics rendering and machine learning.

"By mass producing next-generation HBM2 DRAM, we can contribute much more to the rapid adoption of next-generation HPC systems by global IT companies," said Sewon Chun, senior vice president, Memory Marketing, Samsung Electronics. "Also, in using our 3D memory technology here, we can more proactively cope with the multifaceted needs of global IT, while at the same time strengthening the foundation for future growth of the DRAM market."

The newly introduced 4GB HBM2 DRAM, which uses Samsung's most efficient 20-nanometer process technology and advanced HBM chip design, satisfies the need for high performance, energy efficiency, reliability and small dimensions making it well suited for next-generation HPC systems and graphics cards.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in the development of standards for the microelectronics industry, today announced the publication of an update to JESD235 High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) DRAM standard. HBM DRAM is used in Graphics, High Performance Computing, Server, Networking and Client applications where peak bandwidth, bandwidth per watt, and capacity per area are valued metrics to a solution's success in the market. The standard was developed and updated with support from leading GPU and CPU developers to extend the system bandwidth growth curve beyond levels supported by traditional discrete packaged memory. JESD235A is available for free download from the JEDEC website.

JESD235A leverages Wide I/O and TSV technologies to support up to 8 GB per device at speeds up to 256 GB/s. This bandwidth is delivered across a 1024-bit wide device interface that is divided into 8 independent channels on each DRAM stack. The standard supports 2-high, 4-high and 8-high TSV stacks of DRAM at full bandwidth to allow systems flexibility on capacity requirements from 1 GB - 8 GB per stack.

Intel is readying its most powerful NUC (next-unit of computing) compact desktop, codenamed "Skull Canyon." Slated for the first quarter of 2016 (between January and March), this NUC will feature Intel's most powerful implementation of its 9th generation Iris Pro graphics. According to FanlessTech, we're looking at a chip with Core "Skylake" CPU cores, and an iGPU with 72 execution units, and 128 MB eDRAM L4 cache, which makes up the company's Iris Pro 580 solution. It remains to be seen how small Intel can make this thing.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of highperformance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launched the Lightning Card Reader for Apple iOS devices, including iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Fully MFi certified, the accessory connects to Apple devices using the Lightning interface and brings users convenient interconnectivity and storage expansion with SD and microSD cards. It is the first peripheral in its segment with two-way data transfer, meaning read and write, and the first to combine SD and microSD on one reader. The Lightning Card Reader uses durable materials and a flexible cable to ensure long-lasting and reliable operation, and arrives bundled with a free data management app.

While existing Lightning card readers support one way data movement to import files from cards to devices, ADATA technology supports file import and export so users can freely move content to and from the reader to iPhone, iPad, and iPod. The Lightning Card Reader has SD and microSD slots, so it offers universal compatibility with one of the most popular storage mediums in the world. By comparison, other products in its segment feature either SD or microSD, but not both. This enables simple storage expansion for iOS devices which is also very cost-effective, as users can employ existing cards rather than having to purchase proprietary expansion cards or additional hardware.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., announced today that it is mass producing the industry's first "through silicon via" (TSV) double data rate-4 (DDR4) memory in 128-gigabyte (GB) modules, for enterprise servers and data centers. Following Samsung's introduction of the world-first 3D TSV DDR4 DRAM (64GB) in 2014, the company's new TSV registered dual inline memory module (RDIMM) marks another breakthrough that opens the door for ultra-high capacity memory at the enterprise level. Samsung's new TSV DRAM module boasts the largest capacity and the highest energy efficiency of any DRAM modules today, while operating at high speed and demonstrating excellent reliability.

"We are pleased that volume production of our high speed, low-power 128GB TSV DRAM module will enable our global IT customers and partners to launch a new generation of enterprise solutions with dramatically improved efficiency and scalability for their investment," said Joo Sun Choi, executive vice president, Memory Sales and Marketing, Samsung Electronics. "We will continue to expand our technical cooperation with global leaders in servers, consumer electronics and emerging markets, where consumers can benefit from innovative technology that enhances their productivity and the overall user experience."

NVIDIA's next-generation GPUs, based on the company's "Pascal" architecture, will be reportedly built on the 16 nanometer FinFET node at TSMC, and not the previously reported 14 nm FinFET node at Samsung. Talks of foundry partnership between NVIDIA and Samsung didn't succeed, and the GPU maker decided to revert to TSMC. The "Pascal" family of GPUs will see NVIDIA adopt HBM2 (high-bandwidth memory 2), with stacked DRAM chips sitting alongside the GPU die, on a multi-chip module, similar to AMD's pioneering "Fiji" GPU. Rival AMD, on the other hand, could build its next-generation GCNxt GPUs on 14 nm FinFET process being refined by GlobalFoundries.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launches thePremier SP600NS34 M.2 2242SATA 6Gb/s SSD for Ultrabooks and desktop PCs. To meet the latest platform and users' expectations, "slimmer, faster, and power-saving", ADATA's Premier SP600NS34 features multiple functions to enhance efficiency, such as DEVSLP, BCH ECC technology, and Intel Smart Response Technology. If you are seeking a new solution to upgrade your Ultrabook, the Premier SP600NS34 will be a great choice with the best cost-performance ratio.

The Premier SP600NS34 comes in capacities of 128GB and 256GB, and adopts the smallest SSD form factor - M.2 2242, with measurements of only 22 x 42 x 3.5mm. However, the compact size does not sacrifice performance - with the JMicron controller, the sequential read speed of SP600NS34 is up to 550MB/s, and the maximum 4K random read/write performance is up to 75K/77K IOPS. The Premier SP600NS34 supports DEVSLP (Device Sleep) technology, helping to consume less power than traditional idle and prolonging the battery life at the same time.