[geeks] Mac memory falling in price

[Shannon Hendrix]

On Dec 17, 2007, at 4:54 PM, John Francini wrote:

> So memory pricing is controlled by yet another oligarchy, like the
> oil industry.
>
> At least there's no shortage of sand (i.e., silicon). ;-)

Resin is the rare ingredient that can hurt the IC industry.

Does anyone know how that issue was resolved?

A few years ago a fire at the major resin supplier caused all kinds of  
wailing and gnashing of teeth, but I never heard what the outcome was.

Obviously the world didn't end.

Did that force the industry to look for alternatives to the resin used  
to seal integrated circuits?

I had forgotten about that until just now.

Also, I've heard that IBM buys a rather large amount of gold to make  
sure they have enough for their fabs.

What else is critical that could be disrupted easily?

-- 
Shannon Hendrix
shannon at widomaker.com