Dunstan Power, director and co-founder of ByteSnap Design.
To mark Supply Chain Day on 29 April, ByteSnap Design, the multi-award-winning embedded electronics and software consultancy, has issued guidance on managing the growing DRAM (Dynamic Random-Access Memory) shortage. Driven by surging Artificial Intelligence (AI) demand, DRAM prices rose by approximately 172% in 2025 and lead times are being stretched to as much as 20 weeks.
AI infrastructure, especially High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), is consuming global semiconductor capacity at an unprecedented rate. The company describes the situation as ‘DRAMageddon’, with supply pressures unlikely to ease before 2027.
The core of the crisis lies in manufacturing efficiency. Producing one gigabyte of HBM, used in AI GPU accelerators, requires roughly three times the wafer capacity of standard DDR5 memory. As the ‘Big Three’ manufacturers, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, reallocate production to meet high-margin AI demand, the supply of standard DDR4 and DDR5 used in industrial, medical, and automotive embedded systems is being hollowed out.
The design consultancy warns that switching to DDR5 isn’t a guaranteed solution. Although some DDR5 parts are currently easier to source, rising demand is increasing supply pressure. At the same time, Samsung’s planned phase-out of certain DDR4 lines is driving up DDR4 prices without ensuring stable DDR5 availability. The company recommends seeking platform-specific advice before committing to a redesign.
By the time shortages become widely visible, available allocation has often already been secured, making early action critical. ByteSnap Design further recommends four immediate actions for embedded systems manufacturers to minimise any downtime or production risk:
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Audit your Bill of Materials (BOM): identify which products rely on DDR4 or DDR5, review distributor lead times, and prioritise components on vendor longevity programmes over consumer-grade SKUs.
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Optimise software requirements: assess whether a Linux-class platform is necessary, or if a leaner RTOS and microcontroller could reduce DRAM dependency and enable use of smaller, more available memory.
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Design for flexibility: architect products with multiple viable memory options rather than relying on a single DRAM SKU.
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Extend procurement horizons: shift from rolling eight-week planning to 12–18 month forecasting, and use distributor alert services (e.g. EBV Elektronik, Astute Electronics) to track lead times and pricing trends.
Dunstan Power, director and co-founder of ByteSnap Design, commented: “The DRAM shortage is a structural shift in the market. For manufacturers, every other component on a Bill of Materials is effectively ‘dead stock’ until the DRAM arrives. We are already seeing a repeat of the 2020–23 supply chain crisis, but this time driven by the insatiable demand from AI data centres. The teams that navigate this best will be those acting early on distributor intelligence, not reacting once constraints fully hit.
“For those already facing production disruption, the priority must be ‘Design Rescue’, redesigning boards and rewriting firmware to support components that are actually available. Waiting for supply to recover is no longer a viable strategy.”
For more information on overcoming the DRAM shortage or ByteSnap’s Design Rescue services, visit www.bytesnap.com.
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