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Comment Re:Question (Score 1) 82

I know memory became such a commodity in the past that most manufacturers went out of business.

Not really. DRAM and HBM manufacturing is a speciality that required a lot of investment. Most manufacturers for it bailed back in the 90s long before memory became a commodity. It's just a really complex industry to enter. Look at CXMT, they have only just entered the market this year, they were founded in 2016.

The shortage is due to the lack of supply. The number of suppliers isn't relevant. They are all investing in scale up at the moment. The problem is that the focus is on production of HBM not consumer DRAM, so the price increase in DRAM matches the far more expensive HBM market since companies want to sell whatever they make the most money on.

However everyone knows we're in a bubble so companies are cautious. They are expanding fabs, but only slowly. No one wants to sink billions of dollars into a new fab only for it to be finished just in time for the bubble to pop and profits to crater, so the problem is definitely not being solved as fast as it could be.

Comment Re:nVidia (Score 1) 82

And do what with that knowledge? Say "Fuck you for what you did, by the way can I get that RTX5080 over there now that it's come down in price a bit?"

One of the problems with NVIDIA is they have an effective monopoly in the high end. AMD relegated itself to little league, and Intel is in the corner sniffing glue.

Comment Re:Thanks, AI bubble! (Score 1) 82

Which they'll shutter or repurpose if the demand plummets. You think they're going keep those factories churning out memory chips if prices drop significantly?

Yes they will churn out memory chips. The manufacture of a fab is an insane sunk cost. It won't be shuttered. But specifically memory fabs are also highly purpose built for a certain type of production, typically that production doesn't vary beyond a storage industry, HBM, DRAM, Flash, etc. Repurposing will be within the capabilities of the facility, and even producing a cheap product at volume is more profitable than writing off an investment.

I don't believe there's enough production capacity being built that would cause the product price to drop below the cost of fabrication. The memory industry has been highly profitable even at its lowest price point, and even once those AI morons are finished fucking the world there'll still be significant demand for memory.

Comment Re:AI doesn't use desktop hardware including RAM (Score 2) 82

No, that is exactly what happened. The RAM companies were given lots of money to make HBM not desktop/server DDR5. If there is a glut of unsold HBM, it is not likely that HBM can be used in desktops and servers.

No. You don't seem to be understanding what is driving the market price. Or maybe you're following a confusing thread. If you're on the OP's train of thought, then yes absolutely, the cheap hardware from any AI datacentre collapse cannot be used by consumers.

But the GP was talking about abandoning of the consumer market and pointed to Micron dropping Crucial. That is what I was referring to as being incorrect. That's just one packager not putting RAM on DIMMs. The actual DRAM module price is driven by *FUTURE* orders. When the AI bubble pops, those orders will go unfilled and RAM production will quickly shift from HBM to DRAM (they are technologically very similar, so you're talking days / weeks for production to shift back).

There won't be any unsold HBM, HBMs do not have their own dedicated production facility. There'll be a quick shift back to consumers, and RAM prices will come down and all those brands you know and love (except for Crucial) will be there.

Comment Re:AI doesn't use desktop hardware including RAM (Score 2) 82

Again you're talking about the wrong thing. Just like the GP who conflated Crucial with a DRAM manufacturer. Precisely zero memory providers have given up on consumers, just one has stopped, and even then they only stopped their brand. What people are missing is the RAM crunch is currently the result of *future* orders. HBM isn't vastly different from DRAM. It's running from the same production lines, from the same fabs, with very little in the way of change to either. If the bubble pops it will be days to a couple of weeks before production shifts from HBM to DRAM, and all the brands you know and love for consumer RAM will still be there, except for Crucial. No one has given up on consumers, not even technically Micron who will after this blows over make DRAM and probably onsell it to whomever wants to slap their name on it.

The GP postulated some shutdown of the consumer industry which hasn't happened, it's purely a supply issue, and supply issues are the kinds of things that quickly correct when a bubble bursts.

Hopefully CXMT will get in the game and by 2028 produce enough chips to supply the market demand.

CXMT *is* in the game. They are selling RAM at a price premium to Samsung. To "supply the market demand" would imply that CXMT would produce 5x as much memory as the rest of the market to bring prices back down, that's not going to happen. CXMT has already announced they are wholly focused on entering the HBM market.

Comment Re:socialist left view (Score 1) 97

socialist left view - if you don't agree with me, you're evil.

Well yes, but only on matters of socialism, you know the idea that people should be treated equitably, that healthcare and education should be available, that we shouldn't let people die in the streets homeless.

Let's flip the argument to the negative.

What do you call a person who thinks that human life should be assigned a value and cut off below a threshold? What do you call a person who thinks different people should be treated differently? What do you call a person who denies healthcare and education to people, and the kind of person who thinks people should die in the streets?

Hey Gemini, a bit of help here?
"The word evil means deep moral badness, cruelty, or extreme wickedness that causes great harm, pain, or suffering to others. It can describe a person, an action, an intention, or a destructive force."

Comment Re:Their real argument (Score 1) 97

I don't want my tax money going to politicized institutions, period. I don't want my tax money supporting one side *or* the other, government support should be politically neutral.

The answer to that is emigrate to a country with a dictatorship or king, or suicide. No really, America (and most western nations) have for all of its documented history had tax dollars and expenditure determined by the bias of political party of power. That's literally what politics is, management of funds.

Claiming you don't want it politicised is a cry for help, the kind of help that Democrats funding schools may be able resolve (for the next generation, you are clearly already a lost cause).

Comment Re:Software Updates (Score 1) 67

That used to be worth noting, but is it really relevant now? Quick without looking it up, no google searches, what's the current release Android version number, and name it's flagship feature that didn't exist in the version before it (do it two versions deep to emphasise the point).

We are long past the days where OS updated introduced some mind-bending features like multi-touch or copy-paste, and even longer past the days where they introduced APIs which caused software to have backwards compatibility issues. Most people have no idea what version Android they are running, that includes me, but I can tell you that my last security update was installed 2 weeks ago - that is actually important.

Comment Re:Not sure I understand (Score 1) 67

Most people don't understand. All of Slashdot clamours for a "repairable" phone where they don't need to throw away their phone because the battery is getting old. But *EVERY* phone is repairable. EVERY SINGLE ONE. Not a phone on the market should ever end up in the trash for battery related reasons. Batteries have always been available, and phones aren't that difficult to open with rudimentary tools, and even if you don't have those tools you can pay someone to do it for you while you wait (takes about 15-30min depending on the phone).

But people somehow are okay with taking their car to the workshop, but freak out at the mere concept of paying someone to fix their phone when they are too ham-fisted to do it themselves.

*I've replaced the battery on my Surface Pro 3 twice. That device has a repairability score of 0/10 on iFixIt.

Comment Re:No! (Score 2) 67

Samsung seems to consider Android updates a cost center, not a profit center.

Samsung has matched Google's update policy on their flagship devices, and matched Google's security update policy for all devices. That said you won't get the latest release on day one because Samsung do test the OS update actually works with their customisations (OneUI) before release.

If you want to be a beta tester a Samsung phone is not for you.

And honestly these days the distinction between security and OS updates is insignificant. Virtually no one (including myself) can name a single feature of an Android OS upgrade released in the past 5 years. We're well past eagerly waiting for the next release to do something as mind blowing as supporting multi-touch, or copy-paste.

Comment Re:Not compatible with all 3 carriers (Score 1) 67

My mind is being blown that "carrier compatibility" is a phrase that needs to be used in 2026. I remember phones advertised in the 90s with different frequency radios, including "tri band" which also work all over the USA.

Like WTF is carrier compatibility? What makes carriers incompatible with a phone these days?

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