Demand for high-density DRAM is expected to rise significantly on the upcoming roll-outs of new game consoles built with 8GB of memory, which will likely turn the availability of PC DRAM tighter.

Chipmakers have already allocated more of their available capacity to mobile and niche memory products for consumer electronics, the sources indicated. The global supply of PC DRAM chips will be further constrained, the sources said.

The upcoming Xbox One and PS4 are being showcased at the ongoing Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Both devices utilize an 8-core AMD CPU and feature 8GB of DDR3 RAM, already stealing the spotlight from the market.

Market observers expect shipments of Microsoft's new Xbox One to reach 7.5 million units at the end of 2013, and boom over the next three years, while shipments of Sony's PS4 will total 15-20 million units by end-2013.

Smartphones will play another demand driver for DRAM in 2013, the observers indicated. With their annual shipments topping 800 million units, smartphones have overtaken PCs as a major consumer of DRAM, the observers said.

On the supply side, chipmakers tend to improve their production efficiency by transitioning to a newer process node rather than building new fabs for additional capacity. The DRAM market as a whole will be in a tight situation over the next three years, according to the observers.

By: DocMemory
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