Steve,
check this out from the firing squad on Dell Rambus purchases:
firingsquad.com
RDRAM Supply Update
According to reports, Samsung is shipping an estimated 80 percent of total RDRAM shipments at 2 million units/month, with 70 percent of all RDRAMs being shipped to Dell. On a related note, we purchased our 800MHz RDRAM from Dell's Gigabuys website - shelling out $1100 for one 128MB RIMM just 2 months ago!
With so few RIMMs going around, PC OEMs are grabbing everything they can from memory manufacturers. Infineon Technologies is expected to begin volume RDRAM production shortly, followed by Hyundai Electronics this spring, and Micron Technology sometime this summer.
Currently NEC, Toshiba, and Samsung are bearing the weight of production. Toshiba in particular is tied up supplying modules for Sony's Playstation 2 console.
The Samsung booth was the only place to find PC133 SDRAM, 800MHz RDRAM, and DDR SDRAM in one location. I spoke with one representative from Samsung who stated that DDR SDRAM is currently in production and will cost about 10% more than conventional PC133 SDRAM. Now if AMD and VIA would just release DDR chipsets!
[...]
RDRAM, DDR where are you?
Anyone who has priced RDRAM lately knows how expensive and difficult it is to find in stock. Despite this, Intel is sticking by Rambus, announcing that Tehama (the upcoming Willamette chipset) will only support dual-channel RDRAM.
Intel had several performance figures on hand to demonstrate the performance potential of RDRAM. Intel argues that faster Pentium III's and Willamette's dual-channel RDRAM interface will truly show the performance benefits of RDRAM.
This doesn't explain however, why Intel has made no plans to support less expensive DDR SDRAM in today's Pentium III processors. Intel plans to use DDR SDRAM exclusively in their next-generation 32-bit server CPU, codenamed "Foster."
Essentially, Foster and Willamette will share a relationship similar to the current Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon processors, with one (Xeon) offering more Level 2 cache than the other.
While consumers will certainly appreciate the additional bandwidth dual-channel RDRAM offers, (3.2GB/sec for dual-channel RDRAM vs. 2.1GB for PC266 DDR SDRAM) RDRAM on the 820 chipset is limited to a peak bandwidth of 1.6GB/sec.
Therefore, if the price of RDRAM doesn't take a dramatic plunge in the coming months Intel may have to consider implementing DDR SDRAM in their future chipsets.
Currently, the only chipset that supports dual-channel RDRAM is Intel's 840 chipset.
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