Higher memory prices: a premium on DRAM chips puts the squeeze on consumers.

HIGHER MEMORY PRICES

This year a severe shortage of dynamic RAM (DRAM) chips has made computer memory both scarce and expensive. And although industry observers believe the chip shortage is now abating, the price of 1-megabit (also known as 128K) chips will probably remain inflated through September. And the price of 256-kilobit (or 32Ke chips will be even slower to drop as chip makers cut production in favor of the higher-capacity 1-megabit chips.

Many analysts blame the DRAM drought on the chip makers' changeover from 256-kilobit to 1-megabit chips. Even when the new production lines were in place, chip makers had problems increasing the yield--the number …