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RAM now represents 35 percent of bill of materials for HP PCs

arstechnica.com

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Re: RAM now represents 35 percent of bill of materials for HP PCs

#261

Post by throwaway_20357 »

SolubleSnake wrote: post #19
throw_m239339 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think Europe should invest into manufacturing RAM. RAM isn't going anywhere, all of modern compute uses it. This would be an opportunity to create domestic supply of it. It's easy to build factories, much more difficult to train the engineers required to run them... and let's not even talk about all the crazy regulations & environmental rules at the EU level that make that task even more difficult, because yes, c…

I am a CAD engineer and software developer who has worked in manufacturing a lot in the UK in various industries - products as big as superyachts and as small as peristaltic pumps. I think if the UK and EU are to try and defend their weakening and shrinking manufacturing sectors (these industries have been disappearing for my entire adult life) then it is possible but difficult...In 10 to 20 years it will be impossib…

This is going on for decades and I wonder what the actual business model for the EU economy is in the future. With all factories soon gone, will Europe rely on agriculture, tourism and some services only? Back to a "developing country" economy?

Re: RAM now represents 35 percent of bill of materials for HP PCs

#262

Post by emeril »

dahcryn wrote: post #214
travisgriggs wrote: post #50

I had my formative years in programming when memory usage was something you still worried about as a programmer. And then memory expanded so much that all kinds of “optimal” patterns for programming just become nearly irrelevant. Will we start to actually consider this in software solutions again as a result?

I've actively started to use outlook and teams through chrome to free up some of my ram, easily saves 3-4gb. It's gotten ridiculous how much ram basic tools are using, leaving nothing for doing actually real work

ive found the web versions use a similar amount of memory and have fewer features

my issue is that my company won't issue laptops with more than 16 gbs of ram

guess i'm not virtualizing anything...

Re: RAM now represents 35 percent of bill of materials for HP PCs

#263

Post by pjerem »

tehlike wrote: post #6
asadm wrote: post #4

i am working on my side-product [1] where i was exploring a Rockchip which required external memory (just 1G) which went from $3 to $32 and completely destroyed economics for me. I settled with one with embedded memory and optimizing my code instead :) 1. https://x.com/_asadmemon/status/1989417143398797424

I suspect game development will be similar - game companies will optimize their games given customer cards are not going to be released for a while or will be too expensive.

Games are actually pretty well optimized nowadays. I mostly "game" on a 10 years old computer with a mid-range GPU I bought maybe 3 or 4 years ago and on a Steam Deck.

I sometimes have to disable graphical options but it's more the exception than the rule. On a lot of games, I can even play in 4K.

Of course as you can imagine, I don't game at 245 fps :D

Re: RAM now represents 35 percent of bill of materials for HP PCs

#265

Post by enaaem »

ReedorReed wrote: post #115
travisgriggs wrote: post #50

I had my formative years in programming when memory usage was something you still worried about as a programmer. And then memory expanded so much that all kinds of “optimal” patterns for programming just become nearly irrelevant. Will we start to actually consider this in software solutions again as a result?

I just heard in a podcast, they talked about how powerful our devices are today but do not feel faster than they did 15 years ago and that it's because of what you write here.

I have a 2020 Intel Mac (quad core, 16gb RAM) and it feels as slow as the Packard Bell from 2000 when I was a kid. The launchpad takes 1-2 seconds to show a bunch of icons. Absolutely insane!

Re: RAM now represents 35 percent of bill of materials for HP PCs

#266

Post by ginko »

malshe wrote: post #72
throwaway2037 wrote: post #60

Will this RAM shortage also affect the price of mobile phones?

I read that Apple will start feeling the heat in the third quarter of this year although nobody knows for sure. That will either shrink their margins a bit or iPhones prices will go up.

Poor guys would have to reduce margins from 50% to 40%. ;_;

Re: RAM now represents 35 percent of bill of materials for HP PCs

#267

Post by DharmaPolice »

TrackerFF wrote: post #176
blackoil wrote: post #24

Maybe this RAMmageddon will trigger a wave of optimized softwares that don't need GBs of memory for anything and everything.

Let's see. A) Programmers will get their shit together and start shipping lean software. OR B) New laptops will become neutered thin clients, and all the heavy lifting will be done by cloud service providers. Which one seems more likely?

B would require a fairly large shift in approach since currently the primary way we interact with the cloud is via browsers which are probably the biggest single users of client memory currently.

Re: RAM now represents 35 percent of bill of materials for HP PCs

#268

Post by dgxyz »

dahcryn wrote: post #214
travisgriggs wrote: post #50

I had my formative years in programming when memory usage was something you still worried about as a programmer. And then memory expanded so much that all kinds of “optimal” patterns for programming just become nearly irrelevant. Will we start to actually consider this in software solutions again as a result?

I've actively started to use outlook and teams through chrome to free up some of my ram, easily saves 3-4gb. It's gotten ridiculous how much ram basic tools are using, leaving nothing for doing actually real work

Every app ships with its own isolated web browser now. That idea needs to die.

Back to native apps without bloated toolkits!

Re: RAM now represents 35 percent of bill of materials for HP PCs

#269

Post by aurareturn »

KumaBear wrote: post #3

Only a matter of time before you hear about missing shipping trucks being stolen. China is opening up more production, but I don’t see any relief coming soon.

China is fundamentally limited by lack of ASML machines due to a ban. China can only help if they can recreate ASML machines used to produce RAM with good yield and small enough features.

Re: RAM now represents 35 percent of bill of materials for HP PCs

#270

Post by mushufasa »

travisgriggs wrote: post #50

I had my formative years in programming when memory usage was something you still worried about as a programmer. And then memory expanded so much that all kinds of “optimal” patterns for programming just become nearly irrelevant. Will we start to actually consider this in software solutions again as a result?

I doubt it. I predict in a few years, maybe sooner, one/some of the AI companies buying up the supply will either have achieved their goal or collapsed, and then the market will be flooded with a glut of memory driving prices low again. Or, conversely, the demand stays high for a sustained period of time and the suppliers just increase supply. There's no hard bill of materials/technical reasons for the memory prices to be this high, unlike 20+ years ago.
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