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By Charlie Rodriguez (crodriguez@onepc.net) - March 14, 2001

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the grocery store a short time ago. I had just received one of those catalogs in the mail that day and brought it with me. I was eyeing the advertisement on a 168-pin PC133 SDRAM module bursting out of the front page with 128 Megs of RAM for under $95!! How wonderful! I have been needing some more RAM (don't we all?), and by seeing this I decided I am in the market! I checked the price on the 256's and found them still at their stiff price. Now, maybe some of you out there in the Internet world reading this can see-decide-buy in a heart beat, but with my own little world I see a lot first then decide. The buying part comes later, usually a lot later.

When I saw this "SALE" price, I figured this was a good deal and should not be passed up. Too bad the amount it takes to purchase this fine addition to my family's system was not in my household, but I decided to save up everything I could to make this ours.

When I finally got to the grocery store, I ran into one of my customers who was in need of… guess what … yep, some more RAM. I said I just got a catalog from a supplier and the prices have dropped. She said, "Great! I'll take two!" Two!? I just sold two 128 Megs of SDRAM. Installing and testing will drop a few bucks in the bucket as well! Then it hit me… maybe I should have sold her one 256 Meg module instead of the two 128's.

After leaving the store and getting back to the truck, I flipped through the pages of the catalog and found out that the 256 Meg module was more than the two 128's. Why? Maybe it was their way of getting rid of the smaller modules first, and then they would lower the price of the 256. Made some sense seeing that a lot of the machines out there have no use for anything under 64 Megs. Still I asked myself, "Why?" Then my business mind kicked in. I figured with most of us out there having only two RAM slots, why would any business sell their 256 Meg modules at a great price first, and then lower the price of their 128's. First you sell the 128's because most of us may only be able to afford one of these modules. I know I could only afford one. Then when we replace one of the smaller 32 Meg, or 64 Meg modules we had and fill up both the RAM slots we will sit back and say, "Wow! Look at all this RAM! This should do it for me for now." For now...?

Then a short time later (about two weeks and after ordering six 128's) I saw the price of these 128's jump down to $75!! My gosh! Man o' man! What, why, how is this going on? I again checked the amount of the 256's and found them only a few dollars less than before. I called a few colleges that share a "Round Table" with me, and asked them what they thought was going on with the Ram prices. Why all of a sudden would the larger 128 Meg RAM modules be dropping in price nearly every two weeks? Most of them denied understanding the prices, one told me not to jump at the prices too soon. She told me that they would drop even farther. Three weeks went by. Then it happened! 128 Megs down to just under $50! I figured it was time to email "the Mega-Wad"...

"Mega-Wad" is an old friend of mine from high school who it seems to have had the patience, capital, brains, and luck to push himself through college and beyond to become a glorified programming specialist. He works for a rather big, big biz in central Chicago making something around 75 G's, and even though it has been years since we shared a brew we still find ourselves dropping a line between us every so often. I figured it was time. Part of my email read simply, "What the heck is going on with the dropping of the RAM prices, Wad!? Is there something going on that maybe I should know about? I suspect something over the horizon that may change what these 168-pin SDRAM modules may be worth in the near future. Care to share some light on this, Wad?"

His response was to find me online with a messenger service we have used before and not to email. His information was such an eye opener. Now, I must inform you that my friend is not a b/s kind of guy. If he tells me something that maybe I should not know about he runs a risk of getting his little programming behind in deep water! So of what has been shared with me, this is what I can share with you.

As we all know, electronic technology moves "at the speed of light"! Computers, too. Many of my friends wonder when their systems, which took them a year to save for, will last until they realize it is outdated and just way too slow compared to what is out there. Nearly all of my customers are worried about the same thing. Businesses know what they have. They know what will be on the market in the following year. If they are anxious to put to market what they have created they will need to first get rid of what they have on hand. Kind of like when the new car lots put their inventory "ON SALE" so they can make room for the new models. Sound familiar?

Well it seems that we have, in the near future, a new kind of RAM memory module becoming available. Of course when this new style RAM does become available to the common man (you and I), the price will be beyond our reach. We will vow to wait until the price comes down some before we even think to get one of these. Of course the wealthy few will find themselves needing to be one of the first ones to check this new item out. The 168-pin SDRAM modules that we have become accustomed to will now become "obsolete". Now that we have filled our motherboards with all the RAM we believe we could possibly ever need, why would we need to purchase any of those newer RAM modules? We would have to think about it if there was an introduction of a new motherboard, ya think?

The new fangled RAM would be fast! It would look cool! It would not need any power to keep memory. No power needed!? How? Why? Why would you want to keep memory in the RAM when you shut off the system? There is not any reason to do this… today. What if there were to be an operating system totally different than what we know today? What if someone could create a computer that actually did not need an operating system such as Windows or Linux? Then we would have a reason for this type of "Flash RAM." This new RAM would only need to consume power to change the memory within it. It would need power to erase or add the information. Kinda like the flash memory we use now with our external storage devices, notebooks and digital cameras. When you shut off the system whatever memory is in it when the power goes off will still be there when you boot up. We never needed to do this before now. Tomorrow, "now" will become yesterday.

Word has it that one of these RAM creating businesses are configuring the new RAM's to work with what we use as a motherboard now. But then what about these new style motherboards? Will they be an upgrade of the AT's and ATX's? What will be able to cross over from now to then? What could possibly come over the horizon?

I asked my friend, "Mega-Wad", what does all this mean? What else is there? What would be the smart thing to do? His response was that he was trying to figure that out, too. He heard that the system-less computer is still a ways away. The newer RAM modules more than likely would be of the larger size, might first show up compatible with our systems, and may still be a year or so before we can see one on the shelves. His sources are a bit tight lipped as well. He will find me again soon, he told me.

For right now I guess all we can do is enjoy the falling prices on these RAM modules. I am currently enjoying 384 Megs of PC133 SDRAM. Maybe I will get a wild hair up my wazoo and "invest" in another 256 Megs! Wow! 576 Megs of RAM!! What more could I want!? Well… maybe, just maybe another 256 Megs would be enough. What if they dropped the price on the 512's"!? Whoa! Think of that! 1536 Megs!! A Gig and a half!! Oh, by the way, I have three RAM slots to fill.

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