Just cruising through the November 1999 issue of PC World that came today...
Page 16/17
A two-page ad from Kingston:
Headline: Kingston's Building the Framework For Future Memory Technologies
Body Copy (next to a picture of a RIMM without the heat-dispersing cover): You can't build the next generation of memory overnight. First you have to lay the groundwork. And for Kingston, that starts with a powerful infrastructure. By the year 2000, we will have invested $100 million to support high-volume production for all emerging standards of memory. We've also dedicated trememdous manpower -- increasing our engineering staff by 300% to focus on making new memory technology possible. Of course, we can't deliver on that promise alone. That's why we've developed partnerships with major semiconductor manufacturers and industry leaders such as Intel and Rambus. The result? Premium quality modules at the most affordable prices. To find out more about the new memory technologies, visit us at www.kingston.com/rambus. Or call us at (800) 259-9342. We'll be sure to hammer out the details for you.
Page 58-63
An article titled "What's a Buyer to do?"
Subhead: New chip sets and memory make choosing a PIII PC more confusing than ever. Don't let a slick sales pitch lure you into buying more than you need.
Summary of the article: The chipset/memory market is getting confusing, with 3 types of memory supported on P-IIIs and at least 4 chipsets. Memory speed and bus bandwidth have become bottlenecks in 1999. But the choices are not that simple
Performance tests show standard office apps gain little from the fastest memory and 133-Mhz system bus. "But if your work involves heavy duty memory access -- intensive multitasking, for example -- you should notice a difference. And Intel says that a year from now, when processors run even faster, the new underpinnings will play an important role, especially if demanding apps such as streaming video become popular."
The AMD Athlon system delivers the best current combination of speed and price for current applications. "The 820/RDRAM memory combination didn't distinguish itself until the multitasking test. Here, machines performing file extraction in the background also did tasks in Microsoft Word, Norton Antivirus, and Adobe Photoshop. Dell's 820/RDRAM system completed the test in 243 seconds, about 37 percent less time than the Micron Millennia Max 600 with the B chipset, and 14 percent less time than the Athlon-600 systems. In fact, multitasking is the only area where the PIII/820 combination beat the Athlon PCs by a noticeable margin."
They note that the Dell system with 128M RDRAM costs $2,802 versus the same Dell system with 128M SDRAM at $2,472 in September.
In summary, they say "Next year, not surprisingly, youll get even more for your dollar. Rambus memory prices should drop, and Rambus will get some competition from DDR SDRAM, a memory type expected to run like PC-800, but cost less."
Page 80 (Gateway ad)
Gateway is offering the Performance 600 system with 128M of RDRAM memory (starting at $2399), and the Performance 600XL system with 128M of RDRAM memory (starting at $2999).
Page 172 (Dell ad)
Dell is offering the Precision Workstation 220 (dual processor capable) with 128M of RDRAM (starting at $2599), the XPS B600 with 64M of RDRAM (starting at $1999), and the Optiplex GX200 with 64M of RDRAM (starting at $1699).
Back Cover
Dell again has the same ad as I mentioned for PC Magazine. Again they include the XPS B600 and Workstation 220 products with RDRAM.
I don't know -- for a product that's not even shipping, RDRAM is getting a lot of airplay, especially in ads. PC Magazine also had an article about the new RDRAM systems, which I'll summarize tomorrow.
Dave |
