Re: We believe the choice of DDR over RDRAM put a crimp on the Pavilion's scores, which, while great, could have been stellar
Are you aware of the fact that the RDRAM board is more expensive because it has two memory channels instead of one, and that Intel is replacing its expensive dual-channel Rambus motherboard with a dual-channel DDR motherboard?
Don't feel too bad, since the guys at Maximum PC don't seem to be aware of those facts, either.
Samsung is now shipping DDR400, which has the same bandwidth in one channel as two channels of Rambus - and lower latency. A dual DDR motherboard will have 100% higher bandwidth than a dual RDRAM motherboard (even DDR266 vs. PC1066 Rambus has double the bandwidth 266x8x2 vs. 533x2x2) - and lower latency. With DDR333 (now shipping in motherboards) it's more than 100% faster per channel, and DDR400 is coming on line...
Rambus is expensive to build, expensive to buy, has high latency (terrible as chip speeds increase), and makes motherboards expensive to make. Its error prone bus cannot support more than two RIMMs per channel, drastically limiting expansion possibilities.
Intel has written Rambus out of its future - and its easy to understand why. |
