Asian mass-media sources reported today that contract and spot prices on SDR and DDR SDRAM memory chips are now almost equal. The trends we mentioned in our monthly Memory Overview caused the prices on mainstream DDR SDRAM products to tumble, while SDR SDRAM chips costs to remain on the same level.

Currently 128Mb SDR chips cost $2.50 to $3.0 on a contract basis according to DRAMeXchange, while DDR chips of the same size are quoted at $2.25 to $2.70. The same goes with 256Mb chips, SDR is priced at $4.20 to $5.0 per device, while DDR costs $4.50 to $5.25 on a contact basis. Spot price for 256Mb DDR chips today tumbled to $3.70 what is almost equal to an SDR device of the same size.

Since computer components market is very slow in the first quarter usually, the situation is not likely to improve much soon. It is also important to note that $3.70 price for a 256Mb DDR device is too low for memory manufacturers to remain profitable, so hard times to come for DRAM makers again.