DRAM market bouncing back

The memory chip market looks set to come out of its three year downturn as prices see a sharp hike, but this could spell bad news for PC manufacturers.

The market rate for standard Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chips has risen to around $10 - a $4 increase on prices four months ago.

One stimulus came from Fujitsu's announcement that it is holding talks with Micron Technology and Infineon Technology about the possibility of long-term supply contracts.

Chip manufacturers such as Micron Technology and Samsung say they expect the soaring prices to boost their profits.

But PC manufacturer Tiny Computer Systems told Silicon.com that rising prices "could have severe effects on the market", as the run up to Christmas is the most important time of the year for consumer PC manufacturers.

Tiny warned that the rising prices of memory chips could force it to raise the selling price of its PC range.