The drawn out, drama filled sale of Toshiba’s prized memory business may finally be coming to a close as Reuters reports Toshiba has selected an $18 Billion (2 Trillion Yen) bid from a Bain Capital led group which includes a number of major corporations including Toshiba, Hoya, SK Hynix, Apple, Dell, Kingston, and Seagate.

The infusion of the cash is expected to provide Toshiba 740 Billion Yen after taxes, which will help prevent it from being de-listed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Toshiba had been in a massive amount of debt after major losses by their nuclear power business prompted a multi-billion USD write-off.

Despite Toshiba’s agreement [...]

Low package yield rates may be to blame for AMD Vega graphics cards shortages according to a recent report by DigiTimes.

Unlike traditional graphics cards, AMD Vega graphics cards have both the GPU and the memory integrated in a common interposer layer for improved performance. The newspiece claims that according to sources from the supply chain, manufacturing is experiencing difficulty integrating high-bandwidth (HBM) memory into the GPU interposer. While it’s unclear why this is the case, several sources believe it could potentially be due to problems with Advanced Semiconductor Engineering’s (ASE) packaging technology which is used on AMD Vega [...]

DRAM and NAND prices have soared over the past year due to shortages and it looks like VRAM prices are following a similar trajectory as well. According to a recent article by Digitimes, VRAM price quotes have soared by 30.8% in August, leaping from $6.50 per package in July to $8.50 per package.

The price increase is due to RAM leading RAM manufacturers shifting production focus to memory for servers and smartphones. Samsung, which accounts for 55% of the worldwide VRAM supply, has more than doubled its server DRAM production from 12% to 27%. SK Hynix and Micron which account for the rest of the world’s VRAM production has significantly increased production [...]

Apple and Samsung aren’t exactly on the best terms, but sometimes you just have to set aside your differences to ensure that you’ll have enough NAND to produce your next generation of iPhones.

According to a recent report by Digitimes, Apple suppliers SK Hynix and Toshiba are both experiencing bad yields on their 3D NAND resulting in a shortfall of as much as 30%. In order to ensure an adequate supply of NAND, Apple has reportedly turned to Samsung which not only has relatively good 3D NAND yields, but also has the manufacturing capability to handle the increased demand.

Due to poor yields, global supply of NAND is expected to remain constricted [...]

SK Hynix is making some major advances in NAND technology as it recently announced its first 256Gb 72-layer TLC 3D NAND flash memory. SK Hynix’s 72-layer 3D NAND follows their 48-layer 3D NAND product which was released just five months ago in November 2016.

According to SK Hynix, the new 72-layer TLC 3D NAND is capable of utilizing existing manufacturing lines allowing for 30% better manufacturing efficiency, 2x faster internal operation speed, 20% higher performance, and 1.5x cell density over previous generation 48-Layer 3D NAND.

The new SK Hynix 72-layer 3D NAND will go into mass production in the 2H2017 initially targeting business use. The [...]

When a company is forced to sell a highly profitable business in a high growth industry with very few players involved, everyone takes notice. With Toshiba’s memory business, a number of big names such as Western Digital, SK Hynix, Broadcom, Foxconn, TSMC and more have already entered bids for a majority stake in the company, but it looks like competition is about to get a whole lot more intense.

According to a new report from KoreaHerald, as many as 10 companies have entered bids for the Toshiba memory business including heavyweights such as Amazon, Apple, and Google. While these companies are traditionally not in the business of selling SSDs, they heavily [...]

Good news for US companies planning to make a run for the memory business of struggling Japanese conglomerate, Toshiba, as sources from a recent article from Reuters reports that the Japanese government is ready to block the sale of Toshiba memory to suitors that it believes to be a “risk to national security” to Japan. Countries deemed a risk to the national security of Japan seemingly includes everyone except the US, but the biggest concern is a sale of the business to China as it may give China access to “key capabilities” it’s desperately trying to obtain.

Currently, there are quite a few companies expected to make a bid for the [...]

Amid massive shortages due to increased demand, the NAND Flash market is booming. According to latest report from market intelligence firm, TrendForce, revenues have increased a massive 17.8% quarter over quarter, now reaching a total of $12 Billion in 4Q2016.

Looking at the results, the biggest winners in the 4Q2016 is Micron, which saw revenue increase by 26.9%. This is followed by Intel which saw revenue increase by 25.7%, Western Digital by 22% and Samsung by 19.5%. Toshiba and SK Hynix saw the lowest revenue increases at 8.5% and 9% respectively.

In terms of marketshare, Samsung once again dominated the market by a massive margin. In 4Q2016, [...]

Due to massive losses from their nuclear power business, Toshiba is spinning off their NAND manufacturing business and what was initially supposed to be a sale of just 20% of the business has turned into a majority stake. Numerous companies have been reported to be interested in acquiring the Toshiba memory business including heavy hitters such as SK Hynix, Micron, Western Digital, Tsinghua Unigroup, and more.

According to a new report from DigiTimes, it looks like pure-play foundry TSMC (Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) may also be interested in acquiring a stake in Toshiba’s NAND business to expand into the storage business.

According [...]

It’s good to be in the DRAM business these days. According to a recent report from DRAMeXchange, global DRAM revenues have increased 18.2% sequentially for 4Q2016.

Much of the demand is fueled by strong smartphone sales, particularly Chinese brands along with the iPhone 7. This has resulted in massive shortages of PC DRAM, resulting in a 30% price increase over the previous quarter. Server DRAM is expected to follow suit in 1Q2017.

Memory manufacturers are currently increasing efforts to expand DRAM production capacity, but their efforts aren’t expected to be realized until the 2H2017. As a result, the supply problem is expected to continue to [...]