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How did Intel lose dram to micron?!

Panzer04 2y ago
Deliberate decision to focus on higher-margin products that aren't commodities (like memory). I believe similar logic was used to justify the sale of their flash business.
- xadhominemx 2y ago
  Micron itself was often touch and go until several competitors went bankrupt around 2010
bee_rider 2y ago
I don’t really get the Intel/Micron relationship. Much later, Intel collaborated with Micron on their NVME tech (3D Xpoint/optane), but in the end they gave up the product line to Micron, right? Companies don’t have friends. But they seem quite cozy?
adrian_b 2y ago
By the time when the Japanese DRAM manufacturers began to make DRAM chips that were both better and cheaper than those made by Intel, Intel has decided in 1985, probably rightly, that instead of investing a lot of money in trying to catch up with the Japanese they should better cut their losses by exiting the DRAM market and they should concentrate on what they were doing better, i.e. CPUs for IBM compatible PCs. This decision has been taken not much after the launch of the IBM PC/AT and also when Intel was preparing the launch of 80386, so they were pretty certain that they can make a lot of money from CPUs, even if they abandon their traditional market. It is likely that Intel has reached that point where such a decision had to be taken because for many years they must have underestimated the competence of the Japanese, by believing that they are not innovating, but only copying what the Americans do, exactly like now many Americans claim about the Chinese. When they have realized that actually the quality of the Japanese DRAMs is higher and their semiconductor plants have much better fabrication yields, it was too late.
glitchc 2y ago
DRAM has very tight profit margins. It's a very cost-focused product line to be in, a company like Intel would never be able to get costs low enough. It was the right call.
- adrian_b 2y ago
  During the early eighties, DRAM has become a product with very tight profit margins, thanks to the Japanese competitors. Before that, Intel and Mostek could charge an arm and a leg for their DRAMs, obtaining handsome profits.

Deliberate decision to focus on higher-margin products that aren't commodities (like memory). I believe similar logic was used to justify the sale of their flash business.

xadhominemx 2y ago
Micron itself was often touch and go until several competitors went bankrupt around 2010

bee_rider 2y ago

I don’t really get the Intel/Micron relationship. Much later, Intel collaborated with Micron on their NVME tech (3D Xpoint/optane), but in the end they gave up the product line to Micron, right? Companies don’t have friends. But they seem quite cozy?

adrian_b 2y ago

By the time when the Japanese DRAM manufacturers began to make DRAM chips that were both better and cheaper than those made by Intel, Intel has decided in 1985, probably rightly, that instead of investing a lot of money in trying to catch up with the Japanese they should better cut their losses by exiting the DRAM market and they should concentrate on what they were doing better, i.e. CPUs for IBM compatible PCs. This decision has been taken not much after the launch of the IBM PC/AT and also when Intel was preparing the launch of 80386, so they were pretty certain that they can make a lot of money from CPUs, even if they abandon their traditional market. It is likely that Intel has reached that point where such a decision had to be taken because for many years they must have underestimated the competence of the Japanese, by believing that they are not innovating, but only copying what the Americans do, exactly like now many Americans claim about the Chinese. When they have realized that actually the quality of the Japanese DRAMs is higher and their semiconductor plants have much better fabrication yields, it was too late.

glitchc 2y ago

DRAM has very tight profit margins. It's a very cost-focused product line to be in, a company like Intel would never be able to get costs low enough. It was the right call.

adrian_b 2y ago
During the early eighties, DRAM has become a product with very tight profit margins, thanks to the Japanese competitors. Before that, Intel and Mostek could charge an arm and a leg for their DRAMs, obtaining handsome profits.