Micron move to graphics card chips

Micron fills some of the void left by Qimonda.

The memory business is no game, but that hasn't stopped DRAM maker Micron from diving headfirst into the graphics market with plans to supply memory chips for Nvidia and AMD GPUs.

According to CNET, Micron, the number three DRAM maker in the world, will enter the graphics memory sector with Double Data Rate 3 (DDR3) memory at first, with an aim to move on to 50nm process tech for GDDR3 and GDDR5 chips in the near future.

The offerings will be aimed at punters in the upper middle range of the graphics chip business, initially targeting memory with speeds of 1600MHz and competing directly with already established players like Samsung and Hynix.

But the firm reckons its 1.35 volt DDR3 will have real power consumption advantages over proprietary 1.8 volt GDDR3, and will only get better.

Micron is likely making the push into DRAM for GPUs to help haul itself out of the slumping PC memory market, where DRAM sales have slumped 20 percent from Q408 to Q109. Over the whole year, a glut in memory markets has translated into a 44 percent drop in sales according to market research outfit Isupply.