Intel Corp cuts price of computer memory chip prices

PRICES of the most widely used computer-memory chips fell after Intel Corp reduced the cost of its processors, stimulating demand for faster memory products.

They may rebound next week as PC makers stock up ahead of the year-end shopping season, a market maker said.

The spot price of the benchmark 256-megabit, 266-megahertz double-data-rate dynamic random-access memory chip dropped 1.4% in the past week to $4.39 yesterday, according to Dramexchange.com, a Taiwan-based online market. It forecast the price will rise to as much as $4.60 by November 15.

Intel’s price cut “will increase the demand for high-speed memory”, the exchange said in its weekly market comment.

Samsung Electronics Co. and Micron Technology Inc. are the biggest makers of the chips, which serve as the main memory in PCs, supporting processors made by Intel and other chipmakers.

The introduction of new processors or increased demand for faster models changes demand for memory chips, whose performance and capacity are upgraded in step.

Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor maker, regularly cuts prices to spur demand for older processors as it introduces higher-performing products and develops cheaper manufacturing methods.

The company slashed prices of its Pentium chips by as much as 35% on October 27.

The price of 400-megahertz memory chips rose 1 cent to $4.60 per chip in the past week, according to Dramexchange.com. The market-maker forecast that the 266-megahertz chip price will increase again as producers of cheaper, less sophisticated personal computers stock up ahead of ahead of the holiday shopping season, when PC demand peaks.