cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/24313827
Seriously, what the fuck is going on with fabs right now?
Micron has found a way to add new DRAM manufacturing capacity in a hurry by acquiring a chipmaking campus from Taiwanese outfit Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC).
The two companies announced the deal last weekend. Micron’s version of events says it’s signed a letter of intent to acquire Powerchip’s entire P5 site in Tongluo, Taiwan, for total cash consideration of US$1.8 billion.



To copy my comment on the beehaw.org post, because they and lemmy.world aren’t federated:
https://www.dqindia.com/esdm/microns-acquisition-of-psmcs-tongluo-fab-could-lift-global-dram-supply-outlook-in-2027-11012307
I guess that that’s more DDR4 supply drying up. It’s going to be some very scarce years for memory until enough new production comes online.
EDIT:
https://tech.yahoo.com/computing/articles/amd-ryzen-chief-teases-return-201223682.html
Restarting production of DDR4-capable hardware isn’t going to help nearly as much if nobody is producing DDR4. I guess that there’s still DDR4 memory to scavenge from existing computers.
EDIT2:
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/109702/as-ram-crisis-intensifies-ddr3-motherboards-are-making-an-improbable-comeback/index.html
Now I regret throwing out the DDR3 memory that I have in the past.
Honestly I inherited an old Poweredge server and everything in it is dirt cheap. Like I can find RAM <1€/GB
One more thought — I don’t think that, even if someone is willing to do so as a stopgap until memory production ramps up adequately, that it’s possible to run Windows 11 on a DDR3-based system. DDR4 came out 12 years ago.
Not being able to run ai spyware 11 sounds like a big entry in the plus column to me 😅
Not officially, you have to hack the installer to skip TPM and secure boot checks