VLSI`s CPPI Mixed, But Still High

VLSI Research‚s CPPI spot-market IC pricing index bounced back after two consecutive weeks of decline, increasing by 2.1 points. This widened the CPPI-to-Moore‚s-Law gap to 28.5 from 25.4 points, indicating an upturn is underway, even though growth is modest. The increase came from the memory camp, where DRAM‚s overall spot price-per-bit increased 9%. VLSI cautions that the DRAM surge was not broad-based. The rise in median prices was mainly driven by an increase for some "old" 64MB parts, some of which were up by as much as 42%. The rest of the DRAM spot market, 128 and 256MB, was very unstable and weak. DDR spot prices lost a lot of ground towards the end of the week, dropping by as much as 13%. SDRAMs did not perform any better either, with some parts falling by as much as 12%. DRAMeXchange sees lots of weakness. Flash spot prices, after two consecutive weeks of decline, finally stabilized and were flat for the week. On the logic side, CPU spot prices were stable. However, more price cuts by Intel are underway, the effect of which will be seen in the spot market in coming weeks. Foundry wafer prices are also softening after reports, as others follow IBM‚s reported cuts 180nm prices.Source: PCBnewsline