Apple should just start making their own RAM and not rely so much on the suppliers like Hynix etc

Apple certainty has the financial resources to support other companies in e.g. developing specific innovations or building infrastructure (and has done so in the past) as long as there's an RoI for Apple.

It would surely be a smart move to support the right partner in quickly starting a new memory factory, precisely to Apple's specifications, in return for a long-term supply agreement? If Apple could secure their memory supply and at a lower cost than all of the their PC and phone competition, it would be hugely beneficial for them.

▲

tracker1 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Memory designs are pretty entrenched with the various patents involved... I've said a few times that I don't know why Intel hasn't gotten back into DRAM production with their fabs. I suspect they may be contractually limited when they sold off their memory businesses.

▲

coldtea 10 hours ago | parent [-]

>Memory designs are pretty entrenched with the various patents involved...

Can't be any more entrenched than CPUs, GPUs, and broadband chips, which Apple still designs.

▲

larkost 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Design is not the problem. Having foundry space to manufacture is the bottleneck. It is just all being sucked up (with AI needs being the big additional load).

And to be clear, the foundry space for CPUs/GPUs is not the same as for RAM, which is printed with much larger feature size in order to lower the costs.

	▲	coldtea 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I agree design is not the problem. I am answering the claim that "the various patents involved" would be the show stopper.

▲

absolute8606 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

For CPUs, they are still licensing ARMs cores, of course with their own modifications, and they bought Intel’s modem businesses, which likely gave them the patents they needed. GPUs I can’t speak to on this though.

▲

Marsymars 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> For CPUs, they are still licensing ARMs cores

To be clear here, Apple doesn't actually license any cores from ARM - they've got an architectural license and implement their own cores. Licenses for cores are a different thing.

▲

throawayonthe 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

for gpus i believe they license ip from PowerVR/Imagination

	▲	SpecialistK 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They used to. Switched to designing their own with the A11 about a decade ago.

▲

cosmotic 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Apple doesn't make their own CPUs, they just design them (using ARM IP). It's TSMC that makes them. The bottleneck with RAM is the manufacturing side.

	▲	selectodude 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They don’t use ARM IP. They have an architecture license. They basically created aarch64.

▲

HerbManic 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Alas RAM is basically a commodity product, unless they could have some design advantage over others like the A and M series chips, there is little incentive to go into RAM.

If Apple had the manufacturing capabilities then sure, but they would still be running into the same resource constraints for inputs that everyone else is having nowadays.

At the moment, there are no solutions only responses.

	▲	caycep 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They could justify it as a capacity investment, like buying all the tooling for their aluminum laptop bodies.

▲

JumpCrisscross 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Unless Apple comes up with a novel memory, which I wouldn’t put beyond Cupertino, it makes more sense to participate in economies of scale.

▲

kleton 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Apple normally just does prepayment for capacity- funding the capital for the production line they need

▲

estimator7292 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It would take 5-10 years to design and verify a RAM design that comes anywhere close to the performance of modern day memory. Plus millions in NRE.

▲

coldtea 10 hours ago | parent [-]

Why, is the idea that they would be starting from scratch, inventing it from first principles?

▲

superb_dev 10 hours ago | parent [-]

I would guess patents. If you don’t get the rights for an for an existing design, you need to build your own from the ground up

▲

varispeed 10 hours ago | parent [-]

So if they start now, they'll be immune to shortages in 5-10 years.

It's a no brainer.

	▲	coldtea 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They'd have their own design in 5-10 years. Immune to shortages no. They're not suffering shortages because they don't have their own design, they suffer shortages because the whole supply chain has issues, starting from required minerals and going all the way to shipping. And like the final product (commercial RAM) now goes to AI which pays better, processes/materials/factory utilization to make RAM would continue to go to another industry and not Apple, if that pays better then.