Gene:
Great research on the total market for DRAM
56% Computer. (DT PCs, W/S', Mobile, Servers, PC graphics, etc.)
7% Peripherals (Printers, copiers, monitors)
11% Consumer (Camcorders, Digital cameras, DVD's, Set top boxes, TV's, etc).
14% Communications (Switches, Routers, LAN, Hubs, Cell Phones, Modems, etc.)
12% Industrial/Other (Robots, Test Equip., Med. Equip., Auto equip., Diagnostic equip., GPS, and Military equip.)
The rest of the memory market is commonly called the embedded market, defined by the folks at Microprocessor Forum as anything that has a computer within, but is not called a computer. Anyway, some of these products have performance requirements and could use more memory bandwidth. DDR, in the near future (or now if you buy from Micron) provides improved bandwidth at no increase in cost.
At least one future embedded processor is being designed with a DDR interface (Hitachi's SH5). The SuperH family is in the top 5 of volume. The other majors are ARM and Mips. Are any of these being designed with a DRDRAM interface? I highly doubt it, it would require the manufacturer to include a hard macro of the Rambus RAC and require royalty payments on the value of the whole die. The pins would be dedicated to RDRAM interface only. In contrast, DDR can be added to the design and share pins with SDRAM interface.
I am trying to convey the challenge of designing a volume product for introduction in the future. It is absolutely critical that the components chosen will be cheap and available.
The other major trend for embedded applications will be the use of embedded DRAM. DRAM right on the same die with the rest of the logic. The power consumption can be much better and the bandwidth is incredible. IBM has been making a big pitch for their ASICs with this capability.
My conclusion is that DRDRAM is not going to capture embedded volume. I find it implausible when Rambus claims design wins in the Digital TV market. |
