0.07 second power outage tanks global NAND supply by 7.5%

ThraxThrax 🐌Austin, TX Icrontian
edited January 2011 in Hardware
SOURCE: WSJ - "Brief Power Outage Threatens Toshiba Chip Shipments"
Toshiba's troubles started early Wednesday when, according to power supplier Chubu Electric Power Co., there was a sudden drop in voltage that caused a 0.07-second power interruption at Toshiba's Yokkaichi memory-chip plant in Mie prefecture.

Even the briefest power interruption to the complex machines that make chips can have an effect comparable to disconnecting the power cord on a desktop computer, since the computerized controls on the systems must effectively be rebooted, said Dan Hutcheson, a chip-manufacturing analyst at VLSI Research in San Jose, Calif.

For that reason, chip companies typically take precautions that include installing what the industry calls uninterruptible power supplies. Part of Toshiba's safeguards didn't work this time because the voltage drop was more severe than what the backup system is designed to handle, a company spokesman said.

Comments

  • foolkillerfoolkiller Ontario
    edited December 2010
    This reminds me of back in 1999, when our wholesalers told us memory prices were going to double...then there was an earthquake over in Taiwan area and blammo, quadruple pricing. All this is, is Toshiba wanting an extra expensive holiday season imo.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2010
    I remember that fiasco very well, because I was building my first computer at the time. Not fun.
  • danball1976danball1976 Wichita Falls, TX
    edited December 2010
    Hey, 1999 was when I first started building too, no wonder 32MB of RAM was so expensive.
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    I remember going to computer shows in the early 2000's, and even when memory prices were down, the vendors at the shows would always say how expensive memory was and how it was going to get even more expensive, just to make more profit for themselves. They didn't fool me, I'd buy online and get better stuff cheaper!

    And HOW does a brief outage take out 7.5%? NO WAY. Only the chips in the machines at the time would be affected, and no way is that 7.5% of the global supply.

    That's just the chip companies looking for reasons to raise prices.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    You are such a tool I don't know where to start.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    Tim obviously has no idea...
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    Plus ça change, ....

    *facepalm*
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    No, I looked it up, I read the article. There's no way the amount of chips the machines are making at any one time is 7.5% of ALL the memory chips out there. NO WAY.

    If they are referring to short term production, like how many chips are produced this week or this month, that's another thing.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    There are only three competitors in the NAND market: Intel/Micron, Toshiba/Sandisk and Samsung. The supply is small. Yes, there is a way.

    Please just do everyone a favor and stop posting, because it's obvious that you absolutely do not know what you are talking about.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    Toshiba estimated that its shipments of NAND flash memory could decline by as much as 20% through February as a result of the outage. Based on the company's share of the market, such a reduction would translate into a 7.5% cut in world-wide shipments over that period, but a much smaller percentage for all of 2011, estimated Michael Yang, an analyst at the technology market research firm iSuppli.
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