What is the significance of the article below? I am still
trying to locate the exact origin of the text. Sorry for
posting unqualified stuff.
Samsung Electronics, the world's leading memory chip company, has thrown its weight
behind a new DRAM technology that the company hopes will quash Intel Corp.'s
effort to drive R-DRAMs into the mainstream before the end of the decade. The move
by Samsung is further evidence that the Korea-based memory giant is positioning itself
against the Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel, which has kept its lead as the largest chip
maker in the world due primarily to sales of its ubiquitous Pentium micro processors.
Last year, Samsung joined forces with Digital Equipment Corp. to manufacture that
company's Alpha chips, which will compete with Intel's forthcoming Klamath
processor. Dubbed Synchronous-II, the memory chips from Samsung will use a
technology known as Double Data Rate (DDR), which will allow the chips to pump
out data at twice the rate of their internal clock speed. A 300-MHz Synchronous-II
chip, for instance, will be able to transfer data to the microprocessor at 2.4 gigabytes
per second, said Bob Eminian, director of strategic marketing and applications for
Samsung Semiconductor Inc., San Jose, Calif. Other chip companies backing the
technology include Fujitsu, NEC, Texas Instruments, Micron, Toshiba and Hitachi.
Synchronous-II DRAMs fly in the face of Intel's plans to incorporate a new DRAM
technology based on an ultra-fast interface from Rambus Inc., Mountain View, Calif.
Intel is co-developing this chip--called Next DRAM, or nDRAM--with Rambus, and
hopes to have it ready for production by 1999. Unlike Synchronous-II DRAMs,
NDRAMs will require that memory chip makers pay royalty and licensing fees to
Rambus. Samsung plans to get a leg up over nDRAMs by producing limited quantities
of DDR-based DRAMs by the end of the year, followed by high volume production
early next year. The first devices will have clock speeds of 133-, 167-, 200- and
250-MHz, Eminian said.
Thanks,
J |
