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Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin
RMBS 106.93+2.1%3:59 PM EST

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To: gnuman who wrote (39886)4/14/2000 1:53:00 PM
From: Tenchusatsu  Read Replies (3) of 93625
 
Thanks, Gene. Seems like there is a main heatsink plate covering the entire system. Then there are special heat pipes connecting the Emotion CPU and the graphics controller to the heatsink plate. They said nothing about any special heat pipes connecting to the RDRAM chips, but I wouldn't be surprised if that existed. Looking at the bare board, I see that the two RDRAM chips has a similar silvery sheen as the CPU and graphics controller. That could mean the RDRAM chips could also be attached to the heatsink.

Despite RDRAM's cooling requirements, I think this whole issue is really overblown. I'm sure in Sony's case, it was MUCH more cost-effective to go with two RDRAM chips to provide 3.2 GB/sec in bandwidth than to go with two oversized 64-bit DDR chips. The low pin count of RDRAM makes routing and layout a lot simpler, thus allowing the PS2's mainboard to be cheaper and more compact. Then with the clever heat-plate design, the RDRAM chips can utilize the same cooling solution that the CPU and graphics controller utilize themselves.

As the engineers quoted in the article said, the design of the Sony PS2 is "superb."

Tenchusatsu
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