Reballed memory currently accounts for a small share of smartphone components, but adoption could nearly double by 2027 as manufacturers look for alternatives to increasingly expensive DRAM.
Not sure, but you might be confusing memory with storage?
Pretty sure memory stays as speedy and keeps its capacity over time. Though the software we run on the devices seems to constantly grow, which gives an impression of devices being more sluggish. But in reality, it is the software that is less efficient.
Both can fail. Failing NAND flash (solid state storage) usually results in reallocated sectors or slower reading due to retrying reads on bad sectors. Slow read/write can also just be a symptom of a nearly full drive. Failing DDR# memory can cause software freezes, crashes, or other random behaviour because usually there’s no error correction at that level (ECC isn’t common for consumer devices). Lots of detectable errors (through ECC) can cause a slowdown as it needs to redo the read/write.
If you ignore error correction, storage doesn’t get slower either.
But I also forgot one scenario: the voltage required to get a certain memory frequency increases as the chip ages. At some point you’ll have to lower the frequency to use the chips with a safe voltage, which is literally a slow down.
From an environmental standpoint, I don’t think this has much benefit. Using old tech as-is is great, but the energy used to dismantle and re-engineer old parts at that level probably exceeds the energy needed to build new.
It’s only beneficial in that you don’t need to break ground on a new factory to do it.
It’s not just about the raw energy consumption. Reusing old parts means less raw materials need to be manufactured or mined, which is especially good for toxic materials that are hazardous to the environment or workers.
In this case, all that raw material that would have gone into the chips for these devices is still going to be mined and processed. It will just wind up in a datacenter rather than the general consumer devices.
While this is a sign of very problematic times, it’s kinda good we do this. Reduce -> reuse -> recycle.
Idk if it’s still the case but phone memory used to go bad over time, reducing in size and speed with usage
Not sure, but you might be confusing memory with storage?
Pretty sure memory stays as speedy and keeps its capacity over time. Though the software we run on the devices seems to constantly grow, which gives an impression of devices being more sluggish. But in reality, it is the software that is less efficient.
Both can fail. Failing NAND flash (solid state storage) usually results in reallocated sectors or slower reading due to retrying reads on bad sectors. Slow read/write can also just be a symptom of a nearly full drive. Failing DDR# memory can cause software freezes, crashes, or other random behaviour because usually there’s no error correction at that level (ECC isn’t common for consumer devices). Lots of detectable errors (through ECC) can cause a slowdown as it needs to redo the read/write.
Yeah, but failing RAM don’t get slower or lose capacity. It just plain crashes, right?
If you ignore error correction, storage doesn’t get slower either.
But I also forgot one scenario: the voltage required to get a certain memory frequency increases as the chip ages. At some point you’ll have to lower the frequency to use the chips with a safe voltage, which is literally a slow down.
Yes, unless you consider retraining
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
From an environmental standpoint, I don’t think this has much benefit. Using old tech as-is is great, but the energy used to dismantle and re-engineer old parts at that level probably exceeds the energy needed to build new.
It’s only beneficial in that you don’t need to break ground on a new factory to do it.
It’s not just about the raw energy consumption. Reusing old parts means less raw materials need to be manufactured or mined, which is especially good for toxic materials that are hazardous to the environment or workers.
In this case, all that raw material that would have gone into the chips for these devices is still going to be mined and processed. It will just wind up in a datacenter rather than the general consumer devices.
Yes, but the actual material in a RAM chip is tiny.
Yes, but the scale of smart phone proliferation is massive.
It’s a heat chamber or heat gun and some fresh solder. Certainly not anywhere close to a new RAM module
I’ve watched our techs move parts between boards