Fabs stopping RDRAM production:
techweb.com
"With another delay of a key Intel chip set for enabling Direct Rambus DRAMs in PCs, Rambus systems havemissed the window for the Christmas selling season, analysts said, potentially costing PC makers tens of millions, possibly hobbling the upcoming launch of Intel's next version of the Pentium III, and causing at least one DRAM maker to halt production of Rambus parts.
Here's a summary of the article w.r.t. memory manufacturers:
Samsung - no more wafer starts because of Camino delay
Fujitsu - had already decided to pass on RDRAM
Hitachi - said it will hold off on
ramping RDRAM production pending more
solid information about Camino's launch
Here's some other quotes:
"There will be no more wafer starts for
RDRAM until we can better understand how
long it will take to resolve the Camino
situation," said Avo Kanadjian, vice president
for memory marketing at Samsung
Semiconductor, San Jose, Calif. "Any
capacity that can be freed up will be
reassigned to 128-Mbit or 256-Mbit SDRAM
products. We will require some convincing
before we restart any RDRAM production."
Kanadjian said the company's current
RDRAM inventory and the work now in
progress totals some 100,000 Rambus chips.
If Intel cannot identify the bugs in its chip set
soon, he said, that should be enough to
supply PC OEMs through the end of the year.
And by shifting to SDRAM, the company
could pump an additional million SDRAM
chips into the channel by year's end, he said.
...
One analyst estimated that if OEMs have to
scrap their existing Rambus motherboards, it
could cost them $10 million based on an
estimated 100,000 boards. But another
source said as many as 500,000 Rambus
boards may have already been manufactured
based on orders of key components.
...
"Intel has told us the delay is indefinite,"
Kanadjian said. "It is preferable if they could
give us some kind of schedule so we can plan
our own mix, but I think it's clear that they
have already missed two delivery dates and
they want to be certain that the next one is
100 percent achievable."
Intel had originally planned to roll out the
Camino last spring, but said in February that
the schedule would be pushed out for three
months. The latest problem scrapped the
second planned launch.
"This certainly hurts Intel's credibility," Garber
said. "Two delays is very serious."
While this delay is embarrassing, the real test
will come later this month when the company
is expected to roll out the 0.18-micron version
of its Pentium III, code-named Coppermine,
said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at
Insight 64, Saratoga, Calif. That chip will also
integrate the Level 2 cache, which generally
brings about a 10 percent performance gain
over similar chips running at the same clock
speed but with off-chip cache.
Brookwood said Coppermine is the chip most
PC vendors expected to really activate the
Rambus rush.
"If Intel can't correct the Camino situation
before the Coppermine debut, that will really
throw a wrench into their plans," he said.
"[Intel] doesn't even know yet what the
problem is. This is an embarrassment to be
sure."
...
"This is going to have a strong impact on our
sales," said Dean Hays, director of marketing
at Via's U.S. subsidiary in Fremont, Calif. "We
always say our success is based on our own
execution, but the delay of Intel's 820 chip set
is all gravy for us."
Another chip-set maker, Reliance Computer,
is said to be preparing a chip set that will
support the Coppermine CPU and use DDR memories.
Petz |
