Rambus' fake website???
Someone is definitely giving a very pro-Rambus lean on a website which is supposedly neutral. It appears that the website may be connected to a manager at Rambus. If so, this is an indication of severe fear at the bus...
Well, this is it. Your guide to sorting through the maze of technology, market dynamics, pundits and politics surrounding the DRAM industry. Here's where you'll find informed analysis on where to turn and who to trust. Who's doing what to whom. Whether Rambus is savior or satan.
dramreview.com
The site is about as biased as it comes, and includes statements that are remarkably silly. For instance, they include a table showing the peak power consumption of RDRAM at 1/3 that of SDRAM. Anyone who has stuck his finger on a well used RIMM knows that the heat sink is on there for a very good reason:
The maximum power for a PC133 DIMM is an amazing 11.6 Watts! Typical power is 6.5 Watts, which is in line with VIA's PC133 guideline of providing 2A at 3.3V to the DIMM. DDR power at 266 MHz is similar to SDRAM, at twice the peak bandwidth. Typical RDRAM power is about 2/3 that of DDR at 75% of the peak bandwidth, while maximum power is only half.
dramreview.com
The site reeks with insider knowledge, the patent claims against Hitachi are carefully demonstrated, and they suggest that the unnamed authors were at design conferences not open to the public. The above link includes this:
The data for this analysis comes from a presentation at Platform 2000 by Micron Technology. Micron designs and manufactures SDRAM, DDR, and RDRAM, as well as PCs, so they are in an excellent position to understand the complex analysis required to arrive at an accurate estimate of power consumption.
But the authors of the website are sort of mysterious. Who are these clowns? A trip to networksolutions.com provides an answer:
Registrant: Mindmentum none P.O. Box xxxxx Sunnyvale,ca 94086 us
Domain Name: DRAMREVIEW.COM Created on: 1999-12-06
Expires on: 2001-12-06 Administrative Contact: Mitchell,Jeff
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Phone: 888-459-xxxx
Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Mitchell,Jeff
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Phone: 888-459-xxxx Domain Name Servers:
NS.HOSTING4U.NET [209.15.2.3] NS2.HOSTING4U.NET [209.15.2.4]
networksolutions.com
Not much of an answer, a post office box in Sunnyvale, not too far off from Rambus' P.O box of 94040, but that is hardly proof that the bus is behind the website. But that name Mitchell rings a bell.
Ah, here it is, he's the Business Development Manager at Rambus! Or is he? Jeff Mitchell is a pretty common name in the US...
Today's applications are designed for today's technology, and they work fine," admitted Jeff Mitchell, business development manager at Rambus, Mountain View, Calif. "Rambus won't make a lot of difference. It will be like putting a supercharged race car on a freeway. It can only go as fast as the freeway and the other vehicles on the freeway will allow.
techweb.com
On the other hand, how many Jeff Mitchells are there who give a darn about Rambus, and who happen to live a couple blocks from the corporate headquarters?
So much for dramreview being an independent web site. This means that when I counter the claims on the site, I am directly countering the word of Rambus. I will stick to discussing that site until I have gone over it from one end to the other.
The claims that RDRAM uses less power than SDRAM (or DDR) is the most obvious fabrication. We hashed those figures out at great length on this thread. If someone wants to start defending that issue, the time to start is now. It is the first one that I will cover in detail.
In the mean time, lets take a look at what the RMBS insiders are doing with their stock:
biz.yahoo.com
Yep, selling. Absolutely no buying of any kind, not even the token variety that is done to quiet fears in the investor community. And at levels well below the current price.
-- Carl |
