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125 sats \ 6 replies \ @freetx 6 Jan

I've been following ram prices, its truly getting crazy. Mundane things like "32GB DDR4 sticks" are up 2x YoY

The projections for this year are even crazier....could double again.

At a certain point this will affect everything at consumer level: Phones, laptops, etc. All those software apps (ie. Electron-based) that loads a 1GB glorified web browser are going to feel the pinch soon....

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is this related to a silver shortage?

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silver is used in a lot of the stuff for data centers so maybe.... not sure what parts use the silver though.

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Parts per million precious metals observed in DIMMs back in 2016:

  • Gold: 1022
  • Palladium: 70
  • Silver: 1616
  • Copper: 200

source

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132 sats \ 1 reply \ @freetx 7 Jan

I've heard 2 logical explanations:

  • The silver in datacenters is found mainly in the power network. Particularly in contacts of high energy power components (ie. actual electrical switches) which use silver for low resistance, high reliability of contact points.
  • Samsung’s Ag‑C solid‑state design (silver-carbon solid state battery).
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Interesting!

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I think the biggest issue for the manufacturers is the risk of implosion of bigger=better which would set them up with idle fabs at some point.

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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @Cje95 OP 6 Jan

Dammmmmmm so that why Samsung is expected to announced a 140% jump in fourth-quarter operating profit, according to LSEG estimates.

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Yes! They're laughing all the way to the bank.

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