Gearing up for Direct Rambus -- Advanced Memory Interface Technology Sourcing Promises Flexibility For Resellers
Amber Howle
Mountain View, Calif. -- Major memory vendors officially are preparing for the transition from regular DRAM devices and DIMM modules to the Direct Rambus memory systems expected to debut next year.
Rambus Inc., a chip-to-chip interface technology developer based here, recently launched a validation program for vendors manufacturing its Direct Rambus technology. Rambus will oversee validation of Direct RDRAM devices, Rambus in-line memory modules (RIMM), RIMM connectors and clock components.
By the end of the year, the company will set up an area on its Web site listing suppliers' components that have passed validation, said Julie Cates, corporate marketing manager at Rambus.
And by the time resellers get their hands on Direct Rambus memory systems, "they will have a lot more flexibility to source the product from a variety of companies and not worry about issues of incompatibility," said Steve Cullen, DRAM analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Developed in conjunction with Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., Direct Rambus is expected to make possible the DRAM industry's highest level of performance to date: 1.6 Gbytes per second of peak bandwidth from a single device.
Direct Rambus memory is expected to appear on motherboards sometime next year after Intel releases compatible chipsets, but an Intel spokesman declined to say when those chipsets are expected to ship to motherboard vendors.
By the end of 1999, Direct RDRAM will make up 10 percent to 15 percent of the DRAM market, said Cullen. "Intel has a very clear road map calling for the introduction of Rambus type systems," he said. "That's pretty much going to drive it."
And that is pretty much what is driving competing technologies out of the way, analysts said.
Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRAM, shipping now from a few vendors such as Micron Technology Inc., Boise, Idaho, Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc., Cypress, Calif., and Samsung Semiconductor Inc., San Jose, Calif., likely will develop a workstation and server niche following, said Jim Handy, memory analyst at research firm Dataquest, San Jose.
DDR SDRAM is scalable with the current generation of SDRAM and already is shipping, while the Rambus interface requires a completely different architecture. Nevertheless, Intel's involvement with Rambus has sealed the fate of DDR and the other competing technology, SLDRAM, said analysts.
The SLDRAM technology developed by Siemens AG clearly is losing the race, Cullen said. "I don't know of anybody shipping or introducing new designs with SLDRAM right now," he said. "Everybody who is anybody in the memory world are all signed up to do Rambus."
And that includes Siemens itself, an official participant in the Direct Rambus Validation Program.
Other Direct RDRAM participants include DRAM vendors Kingston Technology Co., Fountain Valley, Calif., and NEC Technologies Inc., Itasca, Ill.; and independent module manufacturers Apacer Technology Inc., San Jose, and Viking Components Inc., Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.
Apacer Technology is planning to show a prototype of its RIMM module at Comdex/Fall next month in Las Vegas.
Copyright ® 1998 CMP Media Inc.
|
