By ckasprzak | TkOut | August 24, 2026 | Hardware, Memory
The Hot Take: How can you even call that a warranty?
The days when it was easy to just purchase a separate RAM kit are over, as the memory shortage means customers will adopt austerity measures to keep their PC hardware alive and kicking for as long as possible. A 16GB Patriot DDR4 RAM owner started experiencing errors with one of his sticks, prompting him to take advantage of the “lifetime warranty.” Unfortunately, that meant he’d have to ship over the RAM, which is more than 80 percent of the cost of DDR4 memory. Due to the customer’s location, it becomes a necessity to ship the DDR4 RAM to…
By ckasprzak | TkOut | August 24, 2026 | Hardware, Memory
The Hot Take: Corporate espionage, smh.
ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China's largest maker of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), planned to obtain Samsung's IP related to its memory process technologies in a bid to develop its own production nodes, according to testimony given in a South Korean criminal case involving leaked Samsung technology, reports Maeil Business. The company's managers allegedly had no intention to develop an in-house process technology from scratch, so obtaining IP from Samsung was a strategic decision.Go deeper with TH Premium: Memory(Image credit:…
By ckasprzak | TkOut | August 24, 2026 | Hardware, Memory
The Hot Take: I hope that G.Skill can survive after this, seems the RAM market is condensing hard since Micron's exit to avoid legal responsibility for price fixing.
G.Skill, maker of some of the best RAM for PC gaming, has begun sending payments to claimants in the $2.4 million class action lawsuit over claims that it falsely advertised the speeds of its memory, misleading customers because the very fastest speeds could only be obtained by overclocking. According to screenshots from different users, reimbursements range from a paltry $20 to $25.Go deeper with TH Premium: Memory(Image credit: SK Hynix)AI data centers are swallowing the world's memory and storage supplySamsung debuts three next-generation…
Intel is signaling a broader push into next-generation memory technologies, with CEO Lip-Bu Tan revealing that the company is exploring new memory architectures after hiring former SK Hynix CEO Lee Seok-Hee.
The Hot Take: We need a memory manufacture that won't price fix.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has revealed that new memory architectures — once thought a commodity business — are now strategically interesting and one of his pet projects, while speaking about the comeback of the American chip industry. He further noted that the memory industry is ripe for innovation, and also hinted at exploring ways to stack memory on top of a CPU. Go deeper with TH Premium: Memory(Image credit: SK Hynix)AI data centers are swallowing the world's memory and storage supplyThe future of DRAM: From DDR5 to future ICsHigh-bandwidth…
By ckasprzak | TkOut | August 6, 2026 | Hardware, Memory
The Hot Take: Sorry Micron's exit is just to convenient.
HP, Asus and Acer have begun using limited quantities of DRAM from China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) in selected budget notebooks sold outside the US, Nikkei Asia reported, as a global memory shortage pushes PC makers to widen their supplier base.
The Hot Take: Um, so memory gets a law suit over 'forever chemicals' but not the other items? Doesn't that seem a bit odd?
Pushback against Micron's planned manufacturing complex in Clay, New York, which comprises four separate fabs, is once again at the center of an environmental lawsuit. Filed by Neighbors for a Better Micron and Jobs to Move America — the same groups that filed a separate lawsuit against Micron in January — filed a new complaint Friday, claiming that approved wastewater and air permits aren't valid and will allow Micron to leak "forever chemicals" into the Oneida River. Go deeper with TH Premium: Chipmaking(Image credit: tsmc)A deeper look at…
Intel has published a new patent on its XBM memory, which is proposed as a replacement for HBM4, offering much higher bandwidth capabilities. XBM vs HBM: Intel's New Proposed DRAM Solution Extends To 32 GT/s Speeds, While Reducing Costs Through UCIe Links HBM continues to be the standard for AI accelerators, but more recently, we have seen LPDDR memory being used to overcome shortages, prices, and power associated with the standard. Intel's past attempts at DRAM, such as HMC (Hybrid Memory Cube) and MCDRAM, faced various issues and never came…
A new class-action lawsuit filed in California accuses SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron of coordinating DRAM production to artificially restrict supply and maintain elevated prices for consumer memory products.
The Hot Take: About time. I've been saying they should have one for a while.
The big story in computing these days is how an ongoing shortage of RAM (dubbed RAMageddon or the RAMpocalypse) has led to massive increases in hardware costs. The conventional explanation of the situation has been that shortages have been driven by the widespread construction of AI data centers. However, a new lawsuit (Garciaguirre et al. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., et al.) filed against RAM manufacturers Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, alleges that these companies are exploiting market conditions to artificially inflate prices.