Amid Weakened NAND Flash Demand, Apple Reportedly Looking to Negotiate Long-Term Deals

[kdarling]

Well, if that's true, the price seems to have dropped SIGNIFICANTLY, with 32 GB modules around $7, 64 GB around $15, and 128 GB around $30, as quoted here:

http://www.inspectrumtech.com/DP/NANDFlashSpotPrice.aspx

But I can't believe it's that cheap - so I must be making an invalid comparison in some way.

You're right, you are making an invalid comparison.

The price list you're looking at starts with Giga BITs, not Giga BYTES. So it's 1/8 the amount that you think. For example, the line for:

• MLC Flash 32Gb 4096Mx8 8.00

Means 32 gigabits = 4096 megabytes = 4 gigabyte

 

[SactoGuy18]

My guess right now is that Apple will release 16, 32 and 64 GB iPhones this summer, and in September 2010 release 64 GB and 128 GB iPod touch models. The 128 GB iPod touch will likely mean the end of the iPod classic with its hard-drive based storage.

 

[iphones4evry1]

Looks like the rest of computer and phone manufacturers are screwed. Apple is going to hog up all of the flash memory supply in the world and consumers will only have one choice: buy an Apple product.

 

[Tones2]

You're right, you are making an invalid comparison.

The price list you're looking at starts with Giga BITs, not Giga BYTES. So it's 1/8 the amount that you think. For example, the line for:

• MLC Flash 32Gb 4096Mx8 8.00

Means 32 gigabits = 4096 megabytes = 4 gigabyte

Ah - I get it now. It didn't make much sense before. Thanls!

Still seems strange though. $30 seems like a lot to pay for 16 GB wholesale. And I'm not sure why they don;t quote 16GB or 32GB prices module prices, which certainly do exist.

Tony

 

[AidenShaw]

You're right, you are making an invalid comparison.

The price list you're looking at starts with Giga BITs, not Giga BYTES. So it's 1/8 the amount that you think. For example, the line for:

• MLC Flash 32Gb 4096Mx8 8.00

Means 32 gigabits = 4096 megabytes = 4 gigabyte

Ah - I get it now. It didn't make much sense before. Thanls!

Still seems strange though. $30 seems like a lot to pay for 16 GB wholesale. And I'm not sure why they don;t quote 16GB or 32GB prices module prices, which certainly do exist.

Tony

To make KDarling's post standards compliant:

You're right, you are making an invalid comparison.

The price list you're looking at starts with Giga Gibi BITs, not Giga Gibi BYTES. So it's 1/8 the amount that you think. For example, the line for:

• MLC Flash 32GbGib 4096MMix8 8.00

Means 32 Giga Gibibits = 4096 mega Mebibytes = 4 Giga Gibibyte

"Mega" is 1000*1000, not 1024*1024.
"Giga" is 1000*1000*1000, not 1024*1024*1024.

http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html

 

[ScottishDuck]

They could always switch to XOR.

 

[kdarling]

To make KDarling's post standards compliant:
"Mega" is 1000*1000, not 1024*1024.
"Giga" is 1000*1000*1000, not 1024*1024*1024.

Perhaps in physics, and for storage drive marketing types. However:

For better or worse, electronic engineers and datasheets continue to use GB (gigabyte) and Gb (gigabit) to mean magnitudes of 1024 (not 1000) because memory only comes in powers of two due to addressing lines. We've used KB, Kb, MB and Mb for decades and we know what they mean in this context.

For example, Samsung writes about their memory like this:

The memory solutions are based on Samsung's advanced 32 gigabit (Gb) NAND flash. The 64GB moviNAND, which measures 1.4mm in height, consists of 16 30nm-class 32Gb MLC NAND chips and a controller. With the new 64GB solution, Samsung's proprietary embedded memory, moviNAND, is now available in 64GB, 32GB, 16GB, 8GB and 4GB densities.

And when they say 16GB memory, they mean gigabytes as in 2^34 = 17,179,869,184 bytes, not just 16,000,000,000 bytes like the weasel disk storage makers do.

 

[AidenShaw]

For better or worse, electronic engineers and datasheets continue to use GB (gigabyte) and Gb (gigabit) to mean magnitudes of 1024 (not 1000)...

And the standards organizations like IEC and NIST are slowing
converting them to use unambiguous terminology....

 

[BVeritas]

And the standards organizations like IEC and NIST are slowing converting them to use unambiguous terminology....

Isn't that what standards organizations do, by definition, oh well, thanks, but please don't be so pedantic in the future ...

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