Hi all; Ouch for RDRAM article: (Rambus official whines about press. LOL!!!)
Barrett Owns Up to Intel’s Failures
Says the market will decide fate of Rambus DRAM
After two frustrating years of trying to get DRAM manufacturers to ramp up production of direct Rambus DRAM (RDRAM), Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., has conceded that it can't force the market to accept it. The company instead has decided on a strategy that lets the market decide whether or not it wants RDRAM.
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Analysts were stunned by Intel's about-face. Up until last month, Intel had maintained RDRAM would be the only memory used with the P4.
"I never expected to hear those words come out of Craig Barrett's mouth," said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Insight 64. "It was crazy for them to put themselves in a position where they were dependent on Rambus. The strategy of banking everything on the Tehama (chipset) and RDRAM ... it would have been a disaster."
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Memory maker Samsung, one of Rambus' strongest supporters, said it was disappointed by Barrett's comments. The Korean company cancelled its upside Rambus lines after earlier indications that Intel was exploring other memory options for the P4.
"We are disappointed because we'd made some early investments," said Bob Eminian, Samsung's vice president of e-business solutions and general manager of its MyMemoryStore.com online direct-sales effort. "We wish there was more Rambus. We still think it is going to grow, so we're not dismantling the machines."
Careful planning saved Samsung from an RDRAM oversupply situation, Eminian said.
"We're not building an excess of Rambus. We're shipping what we're building now. They are purchasing everything we are making in expectation of a spike of demand for the Pentium 4."
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Rambus lashed out at trade publications' treatment of DDR and RDRAM, labeling it biased and unfair.
"Why does Rambus get so much coverage and everything else gets to be treated with such confidence?" asked Kanadjian. "Has the DDR option missed its window of opportunity before it even got started? DDR systems were supposed to be launched by the middle of the year and I have yet to see a DDR system that is production-ready."
Micron Technology Inc. and Hyundai disagree. Complete DDR systems will be shipping before year's end, they said.
electronicnews.com
-- Carl |
