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Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD)

AMD 203.14

-0.8%

Jan 9 9:30 AM EST

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To: Scumbria who wrote (28698)	2/15/2001 7:33:25 PM
From: Charles R	Read Replies (2) of 275872

Scumbria, Good discussion about integrating memory controller into the CPU. Here is my take: Makes a whole lot of sense to integrate memory controller on the CPU. The reasons for integrating memory controller are simple: - Integrating memory controller gives a substantial performance boost - Memory standards change very slowly. There has been only one major memory transition in the last decade (EDO to SDR) and the next decade will probably see one major change (DDR to ??). - Simplifies signal conditioning on the motherboard. This is of increasing importance as CPU speed ramps at these GHz levels - Reduces BOM cost. The interface between CPU and the northbridge has many pins and no one will miss those pins if they are gone. I wouldn't be surprised if the CPU pin count goes down from the current levels. - The gate count of a DRAM controller is next to nothing so the die penalty on the CPU for the above mentioned gains is close to zero. On the other hand, it makes a whole lot of sense to keep graphics and other I/O functions of the CPU: - Too many rapid changes - One size dies not fit everyone. The needs of business users and consumers are radically different. - The I/O interfaces are changing rapidly. LANs from 10->100->1000Mbps. Hard drives from IDE/SCSI/EIDE/UltraSCSI/. USB 1.0/2.0. New interfaces such are IR, Wireless, 1394. And this list is nowhere near complete. - Also, the I/O and graphics side can be analog intensive. I am sure one can comeup with a much longer list if one spends a little bit of time on the issue. The biggest reasons (and I think these are the killer ones) are infrastructure and cost structure. Performance probably is next most important thing. Chuck P.S.: By the way, can you think of ONE major (or even minor) embedded design that has external DRAM controller?

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