It once made Intel almost bankrupt and once became the hegemon of the semiconductor world. Why did it decline?

Today, South Korea's Samsung and SK Group occupy the bulk of the global semiconductor market, but did you know that? In the 1980s, Japan's DRAM memory was the absolute global hegemon, with 80% of the global market share firmly occupied by it.

Japan's semiconductor industry was at its peak in the 1980s, especially in 1985. At that time, half of the semiconductors in the global market came from Japan, and DRAM was the first choice for desktop computers and notebook memory. It is impossible to firmly occupy the market share of 80% at that time.

At that time, Japan even made the now-famous Intel company retreat, losing 173 million US dollars at the lowest point, forcing Intel to lay off employees and almost go bankrupt. At that time, because the Japanese semiconductor industry was too strong, the United States also demanded that Japan and the United States sign the "US-Japan Semiconductor Agreement" on the grounds of identifying Japanese memory dumping. The agreement requires Japan to give up 20% of its semiconductor market share and imposes a large fine on Japan for tariffs.

However, under such strong pressure from the United States, Japan still maintains a high market share. At that time, Intel could only launch the DRAM field sadly.

How could such a strong Japanese semiconductor industry gradually decline later, and now it has gradually become a foil to the bleak end?

At that time, the reason why Japan was daunting to competitors in the industry and loved by consumers was mainly because its quality was so good. To describe it in one sentence: DRAM memory is a memory that can be used for 20 years and still works well.

In the era of big computers, it was normal for an expensive computer to be paired with a durable and high-quality memory, so DRAM has always been favored.

However, with the advent of the era of personal computers, the popularization of computers will inevitably require more functions than storage and computing. In other words, people pay more attention to whether the functions of computers are diverse. Therefore, the iteration and improvement of computer functions became the key at this time, and the expensive price could not retain the market, so the good quality of DRAM memory at that time became its "grave digger" at this time.

After watching the ups and downs of DRAM memory, the author has to express emotion. There is a saying that the times create heroes, but now it seems that even the value of some items depends on the environment, not only with dedication and exquisite skills. from.