China's 1st domestically developed and manufactured DDR4 DRAM memory chip from
is beginning its market release.
I haven't found any English report on this, so let me cap two screenshots from a
, the pictures speak for itself if you're familiar with DIY PC building and DDR4 memories.
Factory specs are 2666 1.2V 19-19-19-43, with simple XMP overclock (not hand tweaked to the limit) it reaches 3466 at 1.35V same timing. Comes in 8GB and 16GB sticks.
For those who have no idea what I just said, basically this is very mainstream and up-to-date PC memory performance. It is not comparable to some of the best chips like Samsung B-die marketed towards enthusiast overclockers, but for 99.9% of users the differences would be negligible in daily use.
This is seriously impressive for a new player.
To understand what an achievement this is, here is a little background:
The world's DRAM chips are currently dominated by a triopoly from Micron (US), Samsung (S Korea) and SK Hynix (S Korea). You can buy many different brands of memory sticks, but the vast majority (>95%) of their DRAM chips came from these 3 players. This is a well developed market with fierce competition, over the years many famous names including semiconductor giants from Taiwan, Japan and Europe were knocked out before the current triopoly took shape. So it not only takes technology know-how to make DRAM, building your own patent pool is a major challenge too.
In the past, China played 3 hands in its attempt to become self sufficient in making DRAM:
- Path A: Tsinghua Unigroup attempted to buyout Micron
- Path B: Fujian Jinhua partnered with Taiwan's Tainet for tech development
- Path C: CXMT purchased tech and patents from Qimonda, the German player previously killed in competition
Path A quickly reached a dead end, of course the US government would never approve the sale of Micron to China.
Path B made a few turns and got stuck, Micron sued Fujian Jinhua for patent infringement due to similar tech direction, Tainet quits and the US government soon imposed strict export ban to the Chinese company.
Path C went real quiet, for a while it seemed like this is going to be another dead end. Then we got one news after another that the lithographic machines are in place, fab lines are ready, patent deals are signed and sorted, and a couple months later, the actual chips are out?
While the current outcome may not be planned from the beginning, it still reminds me the Chinese idiom
So this is the DRAM situation, China is reaching mainstream competitive performance but need time to build market share.
Let's take a brief look at other crucial/major markets of computer components:
Logic processors:
Relatively weak in CPU, even more so in GPU, behind mainstream performance. Some exceptions do exist, they have competitive smartphone SoC and supercomputing processors. Huawei is also said to be developing in-house GPU.
Manufacturing is also weak but making progress, as discussed earlier in this thread on lithography.
Display:
China is a major supplier of LCD and OLED, mainstream performance reached, potential to become market leader. Manufacturing is equally competitive.
NAND (memory for long-term data storage):
Not in the mainstream market, but this could change very soon:
China's NAND development is also very interesting, it seems that they caught up surprisingly fast just like with DRAM. From "no name new player" to mainstream market competitive in no time, if it lives up to the specs. When the actual product is out maybe I will write more.
The more I review these things, the more I understand why the US got anxious.
