Hi dmf; Re: "Now RDRAM at Compaq is relegated to machines classified as "workstations" Today's PC's have the features of yesterday's workstations and supercomputers."
While it is true that, generally speaking, high speed techniques migrate from high speed computers down to low speed ones, the thing to note is that RDRAM was pushed out of desktop and back into just workstations. In other words, RDRAM had to retreat. The only reason they have a position in workstations is that they are still the only memory supported by Intel in that market segment. This will change in 2001, as Intel has announced, with the P4's SDRAM support, and very likely DDR support as well.
Compaq does have SDRAM workstations, but they don't have Intel chips in them. Compaq will sell DDR based workstations, perhaps sooner than people around here expect.
It appears that on Sunday night, around 9pm EST, DDR hits the desktop. There are a bunch of companies that have already demonstrated workstation class motherboards with DDR chipsets. You can expect to see those boards on the market very very soon. There's really no need talking about it until after Sunday night. That's supposedly when the NDAs expire, and the various reviews of production boards get published. I've seen enough reports that I am convinced that this is it. Rumors are everywhere, as you'd expect just prior to a major product release. Hey, maybe they'll all say bad things about DDR, and nobody will buy it! (G)
-- Carl |
