"chaz_heritage.WGC1RX"@XEROX.COM (03/10/88)
Two items relating to supplies of RAM chips (extracted from other DLs): Item 1 >>>>> What happened is the US government enacted legislation that artificially depressed the US market for RAM chips. The Japanese found themselves in a huge overproduction situation and stopped filling the pipelines. Now that demand has risen again (though not to the level it was before the trade bill), the pipelines are empty, and prices have skyrocketed. You guys in England suffer just as badly as us guys in the US, it just takes longer. The chip manufacturers, meanwhile, are making as much money and getting as much US currency as they would have if the legislation had never gone into effect, but they don't have to ship as much product to do so. I have a 4 Meg board on my Amiga. The RAM alone is now worth about twice what I paid for the whole board last year. --- -- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter -- Disclaimer: These U aren't mere opinions... these are *values*. <<<<< Item 2 >>>>> 1) The Japanes price got down to pennies a chip. 2) The Americans got priced out of business, so they shut down their chip manufacturing lines - Then screamed to their congressmen to "protect" them. 3) The congressmen went to the president and begged "Stop the Japs" 4) The US made it illegal for the Japanese to sell reasonably priced chips in the US. 5) The Japanese quit shipping. 6) The Americans didn't start building. voila - no chips. Incidentally, there are still some available from mail order houses for $4.50 to $5.00 each for the 256/150 chips. PS- I have about 8MB of 256k-150ns chips at home. If your's is a personal problem, I will sell 8 of the 256K chips for $30. Jim McLeod 8*223-5052 <<<<<
rnss@ihuxy.ATT.COM (Ron Schreiner) (03/16/88)
In article <880310-105218-1986@Xerox> "chaz_heritage.WGC1RX"@XEROX.COM writes: Actually he forwarded some info about DRAM prices >1) The Japanes > price got down to pennies a chip. >2) The Americans got priced out of business, so they shut down their chip > manufacturing lines - > Then screamed to their congressmen to "protect" them. I was under the impression that certain Japanese manufactors were "dumping" DRAMs at below cost, in an attemp to push the the border-line American companies over the edge. -- Ron Schreiner AT&T Bell Labs ...ihnp4!ihuxy!rnss
govett@avsd.UUCP (David Govett) (03/17/88)
> In article <880310-105218-1986@Xerox> "chaz_heritage.WGC1RX"@XEROX.COM writes: > > Actually he forwarded some info about DRAM prices > > >1) The Japanes > > price got down to pennies a chip. > > >2) The Americans got priced out of business, so they shut down their chip > > manufacturing lines - > > > Then screamed to their congressmen to "protect" them. > > I was under the impression that > certain Japanese manufactors > were "dumping" DRAMs at below cost, > in an attemp to push the the > border-line American companies over > the edge. > > The Japanese got the price down so low because every vertically integrated Japanese company kept adding DRAM capacity until there was overcapacity, and then sold chips below cost (i.e., dumped them) to gain market share. Because they are vertically integrated, they could absorb the losses better than, say, Micron Technology which depends on DRAMs. (Incidentally, the Japanese had those profits because previous dumping had wiped out the US consumer electronics industry.) See how it works?
sreeb@pnet01.cts.com (Ed Beers) (03/17/88)
"Dumping" is an accounting point of view. The memory chip business is VERY
capital intensive but, once yields are under control, the incremental price of
producing chips is very low. So the cost looks something like this:
Price of factory distributed over chips made 2.00
Labor, materials, power, etc 1.00
Marketing, distributers, etc .50
____
3.50
So, according to our government, if you sell them for 2.50 you are selling
them below your "cost" and therefore dumping. From the vendors point of view,
he has already bought the factory so his cost ( in the short term market point
of view ) is 1.50 so he makes 1.00 on each one he sells.
It wasn't a plot to put the US companies out of business, we and they just
built too many factorys and the equilibrium between marginal cost and demand
ended up below the level everyone needed to make a long term profit.
The numbers are just off the top of my head but I have lots of faith in the
reasoning.
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INET: sreeb@pnet01.cts.comfelner@inf.ethz.ch (Tomas Felner) (03/15/90)
I am doing my own 2/4 MB RAM expansion for my old 260ST. However, 1MB Chips and SIMMs are terribly expensive here in Europe. Since I am soon going to New York City for a few days, I'd like to buy the stuff over there. Therefore, does anybody know of a place in NYC where I can get this stuff cheap (like $9 per 1MB chip or $80 per 1MB SIMM). It should be somewhere in Manhattan. Also, what speed do I need. As far as I know anything less than 150ns is OK. Is that correct? Any pointers appreciated. Thanks, Tomas
jfbruno@rodan.acs.syr.edu (John F. Bruno) (03/16/90)
In article <16426@ethz-inf.UUCP> felner@inf.ethz.ch (Tomas Felner) writes: >I am doing my own 2/4 MB RAM expansion for my old 260ST. However, 1MB Chips >and SIMMs are terribly expensive here in Europe. Since I am soon going to >New York City for a few days, I'd like to buy the stuff over there. > >Therefore, does anybody know of a place in NYC where I can get this stuff >cheap (like $9 per 1MB chip or $80 per 1MB SIMM). It should be somewhere >in Manhattan. Why don't you try mail order instead? The Chip Merchant sells 1MB x 8 80NS SIMMS (CMOS w/5 year guarantee) $69.00US The Chip Merchant 9285 Chesapeake Dr. Suite L San Diego, CA 92123 (FAX) (619) 268-0874 (Orders) (800) 426-6375 (Info) (619) 268-4774 ---jb P.S. - 80NS is more than adequate.