Re: what is the memory if not rmbs...
Rambus is a specification for connecting memory cells on one set of chips to the other chips in a system (as is SDRAM, EDO, etc.).
The new dolphin chip described in the article doesn't use any of these technologies (neither RDRAM nor anything else) for it's local video memory. Instead, the memory cells are on the same chip as the CPU(game engine) is. So there's no need for a "bus" to connect the two. The result is much faster access to memory, and much lower pin count (0 pins, since the CPU doesn't need to connect to external memory chips).
This is what Carl was warning us about when he said that any use of rambus in things like video cards, gaming machines, and network cards would be short lived - since it is always both higher in performance and lower in cost to embed the memory directly onto the game chip, or video chip, or whatever. As the density of all chips steadily increases, it becomes easier and easier to budget space for the memory on the same chip as the video, game, or whatever logic.
This does seem to be happening a little sooner than anyone had expected.
The dolphin does use memory in addition to the main video memory, I think, and that may be Rambus - at least in some versions.
Dan |
