Driving Force for Memory Market

The need for more memory bandwidth will continue in 2022. Moreover, CXL-connected memory modules in various form factors such as E3.S, E1.S and PCIe AICs will start to be adopted and used for memory expansion and acceleration starting with data center and computing applications. Compute Express Link (CXL) is an open industry interconnect standard for providing high bandwidth and low latency. It also enables memory expansion and acceleration across high-performance computational workloads for AI, ML, HPC, and communications segments.

In terms of electronics/semiconductor content of everyday consumer items, this segment shall also continue to increase exponentially, driving the demands for added semiconductor production capacity from small low-tech components (resistor, capacitor, voltage regulator, etc.) to advanced microprocessor and memory products. Overall, whether used for industrial or consumer-oriented applications, the demand of memory will expect to go up in 2022.

Future of the Supply Chain

The global supply chain has been undergoing numerous challenges for the past two years due to the pandemic. Factory lockdown and disruption of logistics are just some of the factors contributing the blockage in the production system, affecting more on semiconductor manufacturing in particular. While the global economy is slowly resuming thanks to the vaccines, some bottlenecks, such as shipping congestion, appear not to be recovered soon enough to catch up with the soaring demands in general.

Under such circumstance, it can be foreseen that the supply chain constraints will continue, especially in certain electronics/semiconductor segments until the excessive supply/demand imbalance can be addressed or when all segments in supply chain ramp up to pre-pandemic levels. As much as manufacturers hope for an ease of supply chain constrains in the new year, it will probably still take some time before we see supply chain running smoothly again.

Landscape of Industry Manufacturing

When it comes to overall landscape for electronics/semiconductor manufacturing in 2022, new technologies definitely play a significant role in the picture as they open up new opportunities for business growth. While new silicon designs like DPUs are making in-roads in a few segment, it is evident that the hardware cannot be sold alone without building an ecosystem of software to make it useful so we need to wait for eco-system to adopt and use it.

Another observation worth mentioning is that although investment in electronics/semiconductor manufacturing has mostly been focusing on advanced technology with perceived higher rate of return, there are opportunities for investment that has been overlooked in lower tech electronics/semiconductor manufacturing where supply/demand imbalance exists. As lower tech components are essential for every single product, it creates chances for these suppliers to optimize the production process for more efficient output to meet the driving demands in every aspect.

Deepen Business Involvements for APAC Market in 2022

For more than 30 years, SMART Modular Technologies has been helping customers around the world enable high performance computing through the design, development and advanced packaging of specialty memory solutions. Our robust portfolio ranges from today’s leading edge technologies to standard and legacy DRAM and Flash storage products. Through years of close cooperation with international OEMs, SMART Modular has been able to integrate the latest technological developments and product trends in the worldwide market. APAC region being an important part of SMART Modular’s global deployment, in addition to R&D center in Taiwan, SMART has reinforced investment to offer localized supports to customers and continue to accelerate business development across APAC market.

Looking ahead to 2022, AI, 5G, cloud/edge computing, and EV will still be on top of the trends and involved with different and broader applications. Given the demands driven from these applications in APAC market, SMART Modular is committed to developing various industrial-grade memory solutions to help our partners/prospects catch up on the business development opportunities throughout the trends.

For DRAM solutions, SMART Modular has released multi-type of DDR5 industrial grade modules for applications requiring enhanced endurance and stability in the harsh operating environments. For Flash products, SMART Modular offers SSD solutions like ME2 series and CS/CP series providing SATA and PCIe Gen4 x4 interfaces with various form factors for mid-to-high-end applications. The ME2 series focuses on highly customized firmware solutions, including enterprise-grade NAND Flash which is suitable for All-Flash Array storage and mission-critical applications, while the CS/CP series focuses on cost-effective storage solutions with high durability and reliability, which can be a great fit in industrial control and retail industries.

By: DocMemory
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