BANGALORE, INDIA: Since the 1980s PCs have driven steady DRAM bit growth of 60 per cent per year. That is about to come to a sudden halt, says a report by market research firm Objective Analysis.

Through a significant set of PC benchmarks Objective Analysis has found that in most cases NAND flash provides a greater performance boost per BOM dollar than does DRAM.

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This somewhat surprising result leads to the natural conclusion that DRAM’s position in the PC is threatened by NAND, and that changes will evolve in the near term to undermine the DRAM market, forcing DRAM manufacturers to eventually adopt a foundry model.

This performance gap will widen as software is optimized for this architecture and as NAND prices continue to decline at a faster rate than DRAM. This report says that DRAM growth will be significantly slowed by the greater benefit of adding NAND to a PC.

DRAM and NAND forecasts illustrate the declines that will plague DRAM bit growth and revenues as well as the incremental growth in NAND stemming from its adoption in PCs, it adds.