Hi sylvester80; Re early DDR boards having only two slots, and Fear and Desperation...
Here's the Dell Dimension specification for their i820 RDRAM system:
2 RIMM sockets
dell.com
Here's the Dell Optiplex GX200 specification:
Two gold plated RIMM slots ...
dell.com
And the Dell Optiplex GX300 specification:
Two gold plated RIMM™slots ...
dell.com
RDRAM has been out for a year, but Dell is still selling i820 motherboards with only 2 slots. Those systems are failures not because of only having two memory slots, but because the memory for those slots is too expensive. DDR promises to be fairly cheap, even at first, as compared to RDRAM. By the way, PC133 took another dive this past week, and the PC800 to PC133 ratio is likely going to set another 3-month high on Monday when I update the ratio. As long as RDRAM can't get cheaper than SDRAM, it won't become the dominant memory type.
Tenchusatsu is a well known Intel employee and proponent, so you might try discounting his predictions a bit. You should see what he had to say about AMD a year ago, before it kicked Intel's @$$ all over the board. If he gives me the slightest bit of lip, I will collect some of his juicier predictions for him. But he is not a thread moron like you, Tenchusatsu is quite based in reality. Note that he now agrees that DDR is inevitable.
As far as fear and desperation goes, I detect more than the usual in the Rambus camp. Here's a wonderful example:
I'm sure that all the OEMs will be flooded with orders of the Pentium 4 upon its release, but it is even more important to start building the momentum now. Intel will have huge production numbers in place for the P4, much bigger than anyone is expecting. So, if you work for a large company and control PC purchases, start looking at your budgets and making the necessary adjustments for late November Pentium 4 PC orders.
The pro-AMD/DDR media is scared of the Pentium 4 and Rambus and has already started their smear, spin and FUD tactics. Let's give them an even more reason to be real scared of the Pentium 4. Start back ordering Pentium 4 PCs NOW internally and flood your OEM with Pentium 4 orders upon its release. #reply-14579448
Pretty clear that you're worried about not enough demand for P4 systems. I really wouldn't worry about that. I also wouldn't worry about P4 production. Even though the chip is a lot bigger than the PIII and Intel is already capacity constrained with the PIII, the real constraint will be RDRAM. The big worry is that the memory makers aren't going to provide enough memory to ship the systems with decent memory quantities. Intel stuck itself in a nasty position when they failed in their attempt to force RDRAM onto the industry, and the P4 is going to illustrate this very well.
-- Carl
P.S. I'm thinking of putting together a post showing the predictions of Rambus fans for when they would sign up Samsung, Hyundai, Micron and Infineon for DDR and SDRAM royalties. The Rambus story is coming apart at the seams and you are quite scared about it. I mean really, complaining about 2-slot DDT motherboards. Did you really think that that would make an impression on anybody? What a thread moron. |
