Plan a 'platform-ready' path
08/18 23:47 EST
Aug. 18, 2000 (Electronic Buyers News - CMP via COMTEX) -- A few years ago, the
DRAM market only comprised a couple of device modes, fast page and extended data
out (EDO), with two or so device organizations, typically x1 or x4. The market
has since diversified due to expanded applications that require various types of
DRAMs-high bandwidth, high density, low density, wide architectures, narrow
architectures, low power, standard-power ECC, or non-ECC.
Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) accounts for about 90% of current DRAM usage. By the
end of 2000, Rambus and double-data-rate (DDR) combined may grow to be about
10%, while EDO/fast page will comprise about 5%.
To deal with this growing diversification and the resulting supply issues, OEMs
should align with DRAM vendors who are platform ready-meaning the vendor is
prepared to produce any DRAM modes that customers require (EDO, SDRAM, DDR, or
RDRAM) in large volume with high product availability. The vendor will also have
ample front-end and back-end fab availability with the required test equipment
and packaging at the back-end and can ramp up production as market demands grow.
This fragmentation emanates from OEMs learning that different DRAMs operate
better in different applications based on different system requirements.
Some networking equipment has long product life cycles because it is designed to
be field upgradable and must stay compatible with other existing systems. In
this case, the same type DRAM is used for a long time. Some large network OEMs
have introduced EDO DRAM-based systems with product life cycles of 10 years.
The PC segment of the market is diversifying within itself. High-end PCs are
using Rambus, and as prices come down, Rambus could penetrate mid- to low-end
PCs. Due to the high Rambus premium, these lower-end PCs must, for now, use more
modestly priced DRAMs. The current platform is 100-MHz SDRAM, moving toward 133
MHz. Some PC OEMs are considering DDR SDRAM systems based on AMD's Athlon
processor, which supports PC266. Athlon's front-side bus is a 133-MHz DDR bus,
matching the PC266. As a result, DDR will gain acceptance in volume PCs that use
the Athlon chip.
Servers are a fast-growing market, continually spurred by the Internet and Web
hosting, so data integrity is critical. If a single device fails, the so-called
chip kill must be detected and data flow adjusted accordingly. Therefore, those
applications require x4 devices. Also, average memory requirement is now over 1
Gbyte per system with some servers required to support up to 64 Gbytes. As a
result, power consumption is critical. Currently, the device of choice is the
SDRAM, and is moving toward DDR.
The graphics segment of the market is mostly using high-speed SDRAMs up to 200
MHz in a wide-bus environment (64-, 128-, and at the high end, 256-bit- wide).
Graphics can use higher-frequency SDRAMs due to the nature of the application
(point to point), currently using 4M x 16 DDR devices running at 166 MHz. But
these high-end applications will require 200 MHz by the end of this year and 300
MHz toward the second half of 2001.
Product demand comes from OEM system segments that require specific memories.
Since each OEM has its own product marketing strategy and pricing requirements,
most can't plan beyond six months. OEM DRAM purchasing decisions are made on a
best price, best performance basis about six months before products using those
DRAMs are launched.
A leading DRAM supplier has to be ready to meet customer demand, regardless of
the required DRAM technology. This diversification of DRAM modes calls for major
design and development resources to rapidly bring new product to market to
comply with next-generation system needs. Unfortunately, smaller DRAM vendors
may not have the critical engineering, fabrication, or capacity resources to be
platform ready.
If a small DRAM vendor has only a single fab and wants to produce SDRAM, DDR,
and Rambus, the end product will prove to be less cost-effective because the
vendor isn't getting maximum economies of scale. Large vendors endowed with
multiple fabs have the luxury of allocating fab-specific products-DDR in one
fab, Rambus in another, and SDRAM in yet another. The benefit to OEMs is when
volume increases, the vendor can add capacity.
Small DRAM vendors are severely challenged to maintain a state of platform
readiness given this new DRAM environment. From the OEM perspective, customers
want a one-stop shop. They don't want to buy their DDR from one vendor, Rambus
from another, and SDRAMs from yet another.
-Farhad Tabrizi is vice president of strategic marketing and product planning at
the DRAM Business Unit of Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. Ltd., San Jose.
ebnonline.com
-0-
By: Farhad Tabrizi
Copyright 2000 CMP Media Inc. |
