Hi all; Samsung says RDRAM ramp only temporary. It has come to my attention that the Rambus heads are passing around an allegation that Samsung said there was no demand for DDR. Eventually they'll copy it to this thread, let's be proactive and address it now:
Samsung is the largest MM. I think they are the furthest ahead among the MMs in producing DDR SDRAM chips. They have said that they don't see any demand for DDR products (I can't find the link now but it was made during the latest IDF.) Their most optimistic forcast for DDR is that demand for it it might be 1/4 that for RDRAM.
boards.fool.com
Pretty convenient that the guy couldn't find a link. (LOL!!!) Well, being the link master, I can provide...
Memory makers tout DDR at Via gathering
Mike Clendenin, EE-Times, February 7, 2001
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Despite different memory architectures competing for market share this year against the backdrop of a general slowdown, major DRAM suppliers Micron, Samsung and Hyundai have indicated that this is the year volume production of DDR DRAMs will take off.
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Some companies, such as Mosel Vitelic, contend that, all things being equal, their fundamental manufacturing cost is already lower for DDR DRAM due to their smaller die sizes. "But we are making millions and millions of SDRAM parts and so are our competitors," said Jon Kang, senior vice president for product planning at Samsung Electronics. "So until demand drives volume, then you won't see parity with SDRAM. When we have higher volume, then DDR could cost less than a synchronous."
At present, Kang said Samsung is ready to ramp up quickly for DDR, which uses amanufacturing process similar to the one for SDRAM.
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"The ramp up into the PC market with the Pentium 4 is going to be — according to [Intel] — the fastest and the steepest in their history," Kang said. "So for the time being, as the only memory solution for Pentium 4, Rambus will ramp very quickly this year." Samsung, which said it owned 50 percent of last year's market for Rambus DRAM, recently developed an "affordable" version of the proprietary memory architecture. That chip uses a four-bank configuration similar to that of an SDRAM, and is manufactured with a 0.17-micron process that slices at least 20 percent of production costs, the company said.
Nevertheless, Kang [Senior VP at Samsung] noted that once Intel and third-party chip set vendors provide DDR chip sets, Rambus will be undermined in the mainstream, high-volume segment of the PC market, because the DDR cost structure will be lower.
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eetimes.com
-- Carl |
