IBM Reveals Fast DRAM Roadmap
Craig Menefee, Newsbytes
12/01/98
Newsbytes News Network
(c) Copyright 1998 Post-Newsweek Business Information, Inc. All rights reserved.
FISHKILL, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1998 DEC 1 (NB). IBM [NYSE:IBM] has issued a roadmap to the adoption of next-generation double data rate (DDR) synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) technology.
DDR memory transfers data on both sides of the bus clock, in effect doubling the SDRAM bandwidth for a given clock rate.
IBM has already shipped samples of 0.20 micron, 256MB DDR SDRAM with volume production scheduled for mid-1999. An IBM spokesperson told Newsbytes that, aside from IBM Corp. itself, high-end server companies including Compaq, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Silicon Graphics have been vocal in their support for the technology.
The firm says its plans to ship DDR-enabled products over the next five years include 0.175 micron 128MB SDRAM in late 1999 and 0.15 micron 256MB SDRAM in 2001.
"We have 512 Meg DDR put in the map tentatively for when we get to .15 microns," said Lane Mason, IBM's 256-Meg product marketing specialist. "Right now we're at .2 microns, then next year we go to .175 (microns)."
"We have two generations of working DDR silicon now," Mason said. "We have 64-meg samples that we're not shipping to anybody. We're just proving it out on a DIMM of our own design, to test the functionality. But we will not go to market with it."
Lane also said there's no good way to predict how fast the bandwidth- doubling technology might trickle down from high-end equipment to small business or consumer friendly gear.
"The problem is, it will take lots of enablement," he said. "Chipsets have to support DDR, for example, which has been a hang-up. The DDR specification was only adopted in September and before then a lot of people were beating their own drums. But it takes a critical mass of suppliers to gain full industry support. Now that the spec is adopted, it will happen faster."
Lane says the first devices to use DDR technology, once it has been widely adopted in servers, will most likely be notebook PCs and other devices where bandwidth must be balanced against power drain. The doubling of existing bus data transfer rates to DDR memory chips will be very appealing to power-limited devices, he said. High-end work stations and multimedia machines will follow.
One reason for the current wide industry support for DDR is that its higher performance over current designs permits a reduction in overall system memory for the same performance levels, an important cost advantage that has no corresponding performance disadvantage or die size penalty.
"Support for DDR has been growing rapidly in the marketplace and we believe it will emerge as the technology of choice, particularly for servers," stated Chris King, vice president of worldwide marketing, IBM Microelectronics.
IBM's announcement comes a day after 11 DRAM chip suppliers announced support for DDR technology under the new open standard. Joining in the industry announcement were Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hyundai, IBM, LG, Micron, Mitsubishi, NEC, Samsung, Siemens, and Toshiba.
More information on IBM's roadmap, DDR SDRAM and other IBM Microelectronics products can be seen on the World Wide Web at chips.ibm.com .
Reported by Newsbytes News Network, newsbytes.com .
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