Big global crisis in the supply of memory chipscaused by the massive reorientation of production capacity to centers for the development of artificial intelligence, has forced leading computer manufacturers to look for alternative sources of components. In a precedent for the tech industry, Chinese components have begun to find their way into retail devices intended for the Western market.
Analytical portal Notebookcheck is during the detailed testing of the laptop Lenovo ThinkBook 14 G9 IPL discovered that this device is equipped NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD– with a capacity of 512 GB, signed by the Chinese company YMTC (Yangtze Memory Technologies). This laptop is already on sale in the United States and is available on the Amazon platform at a price of $1,124.
Detour to customers
This is the first recorded case of a laptop from a global technology leader arriving in the US market with built-in YMTC storage. The situation attracts attention, because the company YMTC is located at blacklisted by the US Department of Commerce (Entity List).
The ban effectively prevents the Chinese firm from buying American equipment, software and technologies to manufacture its semiconductors. However, since it is Lenovo company based in China, US sanctions do not legally prevent this manufacturer from assembling finished laptops with Chinese components and then legally importing and selling them within the US.
Market pressure is a game changer, obviously.
Traditional leaders such as Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron and Kioxia have drastically raised their memory prices due to the AI boom. Even the company Apple, known for extremely rigorous control of the supply chain, is currently trying to get official permission from the US government to buy memory chips from another Chinese company, CXMTalthough it is labeled as a company linked to the Chinese military.
Enough for the office and everyday work
Experts from the portal Notebookcheck subjected the built-in Chinese SSD to rigorous tests and rated its performance below average for modern office laptops. With sequential read speeds of 3,950 MB/s and write speeds of 2,514 MB/s, this drive can’t match the best PCIe 4.0 SSDs on the market today.
However, analysts point out that average users probably won’t even notice this difference in speed. writes Tom’sHardware. Lenovo ThinkBook 14 G9 IPL is an affordable laptop for everyday office work, so the target group of customers will be perfectly satisfied with the fact that the computer is reliable and faster than traditional hard drives.
Potential obstacles in public procurement
Lenovo’s decision to implement YMTC drives carries a lot of weight, as this brand is the third largest seller of desktop and laptop computers in the US (right behind Dell and HP). Despite a general decline in PC device shipments of 7% at the beginning of the year, Lenovo managed to increase its market share by 1.2%. Mass sales of this ThinkBook model through corporate packages could drastically accelerate the adoption of Chinese memory solutions in the West.
However, since YMTC has been officially designated by the US administration as a company associated with the Chinese military sector, government institutions, military agencies and companies operating in top secret and sensitive industries will face legal obstacles when procuring this model. The fact that Lenovo knowingly entered into the risk of losing part of the government tenders in America clearly shows that the global memory shortage crisis has become so critical that manufacturers no longer have the luxury of choosing suppliers.