Intel, Memory Suppliers Launch
DRAM Alliance
(01/17/00, 5:33 p.m. ET) By Jack Robertson, Semiconductor Business
News
Intel and five memory chip partners formed
an alliance Monday to develop a
next-generation DRAM format, which is
expected to be ready for use in 2003.
As reported late last month, the alliance teams Intel with
Hyundai MicroElectronics, Infineon, Micron, NEC, and
Samsung to develop the new DRAM architecture.
The new DRAM format will use packet data, similar to
the current Direct Rambus DRAM architecture, but it
will also offer a wider bandwidth, lower latency, lower
cost, and will be scalable to new memory densities, said
a spokesman for the new alliance.
The new memory chip will supplement the projected
next-generation Double Data Rate-2 SDRAM, which is
also expected to come on the market in the same 2003
time period. A spokesman said the new alliance's
DRAM architecture and DDR-2 are expected to find
different application markets and won't compete with
each other.
The spokesman also confirmed that Rambus of
Mountain View, Calif., was not a member of the
alliance.
The new alliance emphasized that its next-generation
DRAM architecture "will be industry developed."
Sources said this was a major turn-around for Santa
Clara, Calif.-based Intel, which had tried
single-handedly to dictate the adoption of Rambus'
Direct RDRAM over rival PC133 SDRAM and DDR
memories.
The DRAM companies and Intel said Monday that they
will work together with industry participants to develop
the architecture, electrical and physical design, and
related infrastructure. The partners said they will
provide other interested companies access to design
information and provide inputs in the development
process by signing a participant's agreement.
Specifications will be provided to all participants for
review and feedback.
The five DRAM members of the alliance control more
than 80 percent of the global dynamic memory market.
......Intel Plays Catch-up In PC Chip
Sets
(01/17/00, 5:42 p.m. ET) By David Lammers and Will Wade, EE Times
With Rambus-based systems still too
expensive for mainstream desktop PCs,
Intel next quarter said it plans to release its
Solano chip set, supporting 133-MHz
synchronous-DRAM technology. But Intel's
chip set operation is playing catch-up to Via
Technologies, which this week began
shipping its Apollo KX133 chip set for
Advanced Micro Devices' Athlon processor.
The chip set supports PC133 memory, an
AGP-4X graphics port, and AMD's 200-MHz
front-side bus.
The shootout between the Solano and Apollo KX133
could make this "one of the most interesting years in a
long time, because we have competing, alternative
architectures," said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at
Mercury Research, in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Intel's stumble on the road to Rambus memories may
have handed a market advantage to Via in chip sets and
to AMD in processors that could last the next several
months, analysts said.
Intel's Solano chip set is likely to be renamed the "815"
when it goes into production. It is considered an
intermediary step between the 810 chip set with
integrated graphics and the 820 Camino product, which
supports the Rambus memory technology.
Both the 820 and the latest version of the 810 family,
the 810E, feature a 133-MHz front-side bus. Solano is
expected to include both an integrated graphics core
and an AGP-4X port for users that want to upgrade
performance with an add-in graphics card.
Peter Glaskowsky, who tracks chip set and graphics
technologies at MicroDesign Resources, in Sebastopol,
Calif., said Via's KX133 chip set for the Athlon is
"essentially equivalent" to Via's Apollo Pro133A chip
set for Intel-based systems, which also supports a
133-MHz front-side bus.
Until now, anyone who bought an Athlon-based system
didn't get PC133 or the AGP-4X graphics port, which
Via supported only on Intel-based systems.
"The OEMs can say, 'Now you get all the right
features,' and in my opinion, the performance is going to
be very good," Glaskowsky said. "Via ships very
high-quality chip sets these days. It has put a lot of
resources into chip sets over the last two years, and the
company ships a much better product now than it did
two years ago."
Obvious Complexity
Chip set design is becoming extremely complex, he
added. Those difficulties were evident in Intel's 820 line,
which was "a big disappointment to OEMs. In order to
have a system faster than one based on the [older BX
product line], they have to use Rambus memory, which
is prohibitively expensive."
The 820, said Glaskowsky, provides "a way to
re-equip the system with a translator that can work with
SDRAMs, but that brings on performance problems.
So Solano is hopefully going to fix those problems, and
I believe it does."
The Solano will be an important product this year
because Intel's chip set division has fallen behind its
competitors in both desktops and low-end servers.
"Intel does offer good desktop chip sets, but they are
not as good as Via's right now," said Glaskowsky. "I
think they have accepted that and decided to do
something about it [with Solano]. But the situation we
are in right now is kind of weird. Here we have this big,
successful Intel that has missed out on the sweet spot of
the desktop market. And they also have missed out in
the 2X and 4X server market where Reliance
[Computer] is doing so well. That indicates some failing
in Intel's chip set operation."
By the middle of this year, Mercury's McCarron said he
expects the PC market to be focused on PC133-based
desktops, running a 133-MHz front-side bus, making
Solano a crucial product.
"There is a huge vacuum developing in the market, and
that is exactly where Solano fits in," said McCarron.
"Depending on how long it takes for Intel to fill that gap,
it gives Via an entry."
Via's advantage will be "pretty much erased by
midyear," he added.
The KX133 is equally important for the Athlon camp,
because it will help maintain a performance edge over
Intel.
"Putting faster memory onto the already-fast 200-MHz
Athlon bus should give systems a performance boost of
5 percent to 10 percent," said Nathan Brookwood,
principal analyst at market research firm Insight64, in
Saratoga, Calif. "The Athlon is currently running neck
and neck with Intel's Coppermine chips, so this chip set
is critical for AMD."
In large part, Solano takes on added importance
because of Intel's missteps with Rambus DRAMs. Not
only are the RDRAM chips expensive, but Intel
dropped the ball twice in high-profile delays getting the
attendant 820 chip set to market. That caused bad
blood with OEMs such as Dell, which had bet heavily
on the Rambus technology.
With few DRAM companies shipping Rambus DRAMs
in volume, and with premiums hovering in the 50
percent range compared with SDRAMs, McCarron
said the RDRAM/820 systems will remain pigeonholed
at the very high end this year.
"We've heard about continuing yield problems, which
are partly due to the fundamental die size penalty on the
RDRAMs," he said. "Demand has not been as high as
expected."
Michael Slater, editorial director at MicroDesign
Resources, said Intel "did misjudge the costs of the
RDRAMs. Whether that proves to be a transient
problem or a big mistake remains to be seen. There is
resistance, but I still expect in the long run that the
Rambus technology will be successful."
Still, he added, "One thing is clear: The memory market
will never be as homogenous as it was last year, when
SDRAMs dominated everything."
Slater said AMD appears to be hitting its Athlon
production targets, shipping about 800,000 in the fourth
quarter of 1999.
Steve Lapinski, director of product marketing at AMD,
confirmed that the company is able to meet demand.
The company's new fab in Dresden, Germany, is "on
track for production in the second half of 2000, using
copper" interconnects, he said. At a financial analysts
meeting in November, AMD demonstrated a
copper-based Athlon running at 900 MHz, he said.
Lapinski said the OEMs using the Athlon are planning
to transition to double-data-rate SDRAMs toward the
end of this year, rather than to RDRAMs.
"We have a Rambus agreement, but it is our customers
that really make the choice of what memory to
support," he said. "They have not been asking us to
support Rambus."
Confidence In Price Dip
Avo Kanadjian, who recently joined Rambus, in
Mountain View, Calif., as marketing vice president, said
he is confident the price premium for RDRAMs will
decline sharply in the next few months.
"I'm not too worried about the premiums," said
Kanadjian, who worked for Samsung Semiconductor in
marketing positions for seven years. "In this industry,
none of the major DRAM makers wants to be totally
dependent on one product, SDRAMs. There is always
pressure to lower the price per bit, and the same
situation will happen with Rambus DRAMs."
True price competition will start once multiple suppliers
go into production.
"Samsung clearly has the lead now, but a number of
others are ready to start mass production. They are
confident enough to go into mass production," he said.
The delays in Intel's 820 chip set, and RDRAM
manufacturing challenges, caused "everything to be
shifted by a quarter in terms of the price curve. If we
allow for that shift, things are still on track," Kanadjian
said.
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