The story of high-binned Infineon CE-6

[uOpt]

• [somewhere in Germany]
• [infineon tech] Hey boss, the new CE-6 production line is doing great.
• [infineon boss] Nice. Let's offer it to some of these enthusiast memory makes.

• [G.Skill]Cool. Now we can offer a low-latency PC3200 without having to rely on these price-gropers who make the chips for our HX set. We take some of the medium binned stuff.
• [OCZ]Cool. Now we can offer the PC4000 with the best timings on the market. We take the higest bin.
• [time passes, G.Skill makes good money because their ZX very often overclocks very well and OCZ makes good money because people like to have the best gigabyte sticks around]
• [Mushkin, Corsair, everybody else and their dog]Woah, we need this stuff. How come these CE-6 chips suddenly do well?

• [More high-binned CE-6 kits come out.]
  [Supply of CE-6 drops to zero. Strange.]

• [Somewhere in Germany]
• [Infineon tech] I wonder what happens if I... Ups...
• [Infineon boss] People violently demand these CE-6 deliveries. How's that coming alo...
• [Infineon tech] I DIDN'T TOUCH ANYTHING!
• [Infineon boss] Uh? Now how's that CE-6?
• [Infineon tech] I'm afraid the new production runs aren't doing as great as the stuff we had a few weeks ago. Not that I touched anything.:whistle:
• [Infineon boss] OK, we need to ship. Tell the sanitors to scrape anything off the floor that they find.

• [G.Skill tech] Hey boss, these new CE-6 s..k.
• [G.Skill boss] Do they meet our PC3200 spec?
• [G.Skill tech] Yeah, but people won't get a good overclocking chance anymore
• [G.Skill boss] Well, that's the deal with specs . Ship'em.

• [Mushkin tech] Hey boss, these new CE-6 s..k.
• [Mushkin boss] Do they meet our PC4000 spec?
• [Mushkin tech] Only some of them, barely enough for our low volume.
• [Mushkin boss] Well, put together what you can and we sell them on our website.

• [OCZ tech] Hey boss, these new CE-6 s..k.
• [OCZ Platinum line boss] Do they meet our PC4000 spec?
• [OCZ tech] Nah, no way we get enough for our high volume. Plus they seem to be unstable when gaming while overclocked. Looks pretty volatile.
• [OCZ Platinum line boss] OK, screw these Infineon dudes. Crack down on the UCCC binning and get us those chips that meet the Platinum EB specs.
• [OCZ Gold line boss] Hey, you can't take away my highest-binning chips.
• [OCZ Platinum line boss] Do we leave you chips that meet your Gold spec?
• [OCZ Gold line boss] Yeah, but people won't see any modules doing better than spec anymore.
• [OCZ Platinum line boss] Well, that's the deal with specs . Surrender your chips and prepare to be boarded now. Plus you have the new fancy heatspreaders and I don't, so there

• [G.Skill customer]Hey, why is nobody getting these great overclocks anymore?
• [OCZ Platinum customer]Hey, why is there UCCC in my Platinum EB?
• [OCZ Gold customer]Hey, why is the Gold GX stuff only barely meetings its spec?
• [Mushkin customer]Hey, why are the latest modules doing so bad?
• [All CE-6 customers]Hey, why are these chips not stable for gaming when they do 32 years quad-prime with no problems?

• [OCZ people]Being in the enthusiast memory market s..ks.
• [G.Skill people]Being in the enthusiast memory market s..ks.
• [Mushkin people]Being in the enthusiast memory market s..ks.

• [Infineon tech]Phew. Luckily nobody noticed I fatfingered the CE-6 production quality. I shouldn't drink Sambuka next to the machine. Ah, whatever. Cheers!

[vapb400]

Damn infineon

nice story though, I hadnt been paying attention and it all makes sense now.

[GSKILL TECH]

haaaaaaaahahaha

nice stroy

you just make my day

[eva2000]

Lol

[Vapor]

LOL, some details are wrong but still, LOL.

That's how Infineon works unfortunately.....their yields are just so unpredictable.

[SnipingWaste]

Kind of remindes me of TI fabs. It funny when walking down the hall and you can see soda cans in the clean rooms.

[Eldonko]

heh good stuff

[AlterBridge86]

LOL great story

[Achilles17]

Haha, nice.

[Vassili]

Nice story indeed!

But OCZ 2x1024MB 4000EB is using UCCC now?

[ozzimark]

But OCZ 2x1024MB 4000EB is using UCCC now?

yup. i don't think it's really a bad thing though, considering the rarity of the UCCC that does 3-3-2 at 250mhz:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=82957

[phelonius]

nice story ^^ ... i hope

[sin0822]

lol that is funny, ce-6 is a high yield ic, as well ce-5, but hte reason they dont use ce-5 (whihc is better) is because infineon only sells it in HUGE batches that our enthusiast ram makers cant afford to buy and find buyers for.

[Overbuary]

Lol, really Nice story..

and yeah, i glad i have some Samsung UCCC's on my Brainpower PCB, my brother has some om those G.Skill ZX, thay have the Infedoin CE-6 Ic's..

Crappy Memory..

[Vapor]

lol that is funny, ce-6 is a high yield ic, as well ce-5, but hte reason they dont use ce-5 (whihc is better) is because infineon only sells it in HUGE batches that our enthusiast ram makers cant afford to buy and find buyers for.

While it is a high yield part (they're still all making the DDR333 bin, although DDR500 is MIA this revision), Infineon has repeatedly just crapped out with high-end yields after having a good thing for a short while.

Purchasing strategies of our favorite companies aren't what you think (well, actually if your favorite is G.Skill, I honestly don't have the SLIGHTEST clue how they do business)--if there's a minimum quantity, they'll handle it. Frankly, CE-5 is not something that can be found in quantity (Corsair almost intro'd PC4400 2GB kits with it but balked because it required 2T and the stigma about 2T was a great anti-marketting campaign) and has similar varying-yield issues. CE-5 and CE-6 are identical, just different in-house binnings, much like TCC5 vs. TCCD. One reason why we don't see CE-5 is because, even at CE-6 quantities (which it never comes in), it costs more than our favorite companies buying much cheaper CE-6 (which is binned by percentile at Infineon) and spending the little extra to bin in-house, akin to the UTT situation (those things were DIRT cheap, most cost went to binning). CE-5 is being purchased by our favorite companies and being tested, but thus far they saw no reason to buy it en masse considering CE-6 was doing quite well for a lower cost. Now we might see some CE-5, but UCCC is getting better and better so probably not.

Don't let this distract people from the very funny and telling story though.

[sin0822]

no, large companies like hp and dell have bought ce-5

[rodman]

My Patriots have ce-5 and they suck I just ordered some Mushkin reds and now they probably suck as well I feel so much better now

[sin0822]

really? patriotuses ce-5? or be-5?

[Vapor]

Probably CE....they were the first with CE die.

EDIT: they were using it before CE-6 was good.

[sin0822]

oh ok, because if your talking about the pc3200 at 2,3,2,5 its be-5. Also this thread isnt half the story.

[EnJoY]

According to my sources (dont laugh), Infineon had a very low yield on CE-6 last month, but this month is looking to be very high (can't give any numbers), so the good sticks should be back in play. Look for good CE-6 in mushkin, ocz, and g.skill's lines in a few weeks.

[racinjimy]

According to my sources (dont laugh), Infineon had a very low yield on CE-6 last month, but this month is looking to be very high (can't give any numbers), so the good sticks should be back in play. Look for good CE-6 in mushkin, ocz, and g.skill's lines in a few weeks.

great now you tell me...........................

[kk228]

haha...funny story.

[RyderOCZ]

We are not using UCCC in the EB kits.....that other thread is being looked after to determine what is going on there.

Just to let everyone know.

Thanks

[uOpt]

OK, time to mention that my "story" is of course just picking up a few random observations and then make a story of it.

I have no way to tell what went on inside any of the mentioned companies - except I am sure the memory makers sometimes curse the enthusiast business and I could esily imagine the "Ups" in the CE-6 production line - it just fits the observations too well