To: Scumbria who wrote (24484 ) 7/10/1999 6:22:00 AM From: unclewest Respond to of 93625
The testing of DRDRAM involves more complexity than just testing the memories. Any designs which use DRDRAM also need to be tested at DRDRAM speeds. This presents an additional hurdle for DRDRAM acceptance, beyond the immediate problem of the DRDRAM manufacturers. scumbria, you make a good point. there has been a lot of noise and speculation about rdram-d testing this week. i would like to point out that sony and toshiba, intel and ibm have the greatest computer labs in the world (tom's workbench hardly compares). these tech giants plus dell have been testing fully loaded rambus systems since last summer . all 5 of these companies and about 96+ more companies are firmly in support of rambus. in fact the support for rambus is so overwhelming i can no longer keep up with the huge amount of rambus info available on the net. the following is old news..posted only to substantiate my point. unclewest IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC) today announced another Rambus(R) technology leadership achievement with the delivery of its 64 megabyte (MB) and 128MB Revision B Rambus RIMM(TM) memory module samples to Intel. This makes Toshiba one of the first suppliers to submit samples that allow Intel to test a fully loaded 800 megahertz (MHz) system with 32 RDRAM(R) devices. "The process of going from the Direct RDRAM(TM) design to mass production involves several steps. Toshiba's industry leading memory device engineering and manufacturing capability, encapsulated in Toshiba's Scalable by Design(TM) program, enabled us to hit every milestone," said Stephen D. Marlow, vice president of business development, Memory Business Unit at TAEC. "We intend to be the RDRAM technology leader and this latest milestone is an indication that we are well on our way." "We are very pleased to see Toshiba deliver production samples of Direct RDRAM," said Peter MacWilliams, Intel Fellow and director of platform architecture for Intel architecture labs. "We believe Toshiba will be a key vendor for the beginning phase of the Direct RDRAM ramp in 1999." Amplifying on his assertion, Marlow described the implementation of Toshiba's Direct RDRAM program. In February 1998, he recalled, Rambus completed the Direct RDRAM interface design and distributed it simultaneously to all of the company's licensees. "In April, just two months later, we were the first in the industry to achieve first silicon. In June 1998 Rambus Inc. confirmed that Toshiba's 72 megabit (Mb) Direct RDRAMs were the industry's first with confirmed 800MHz or 1.6 gigabytes per second functionality. That same month, we delivered samples to Intel for evaluation," he said. Toshiba RIMM modules were demonstrated in test boards running at 800MHz at the Intel Developer's Forum and Rambus Developer's Forum, both in September 1998. "We felt comfortably ahead of the industry as no other manufacturer mounted a demonstration at these two key events," Marlow explained. The next milestone was submitting RIMM module samples to Rambus for PCB impedance verification and review of other key design parameters in October 1998. "Again we were first," Marlow claimed, "and Rambus devised new, improved testing methodologies while conducting design verification of our modules." Toshiba, together with its manufacturing partner, Kingston Technology Company, delivered Toshiba's first RIMM modules to Dell Computer Corporation in mid-October. At the end of October 1998 Toshiba submitted RIMM module samples to Intel for validation testing in a system environment. "We were one of the first manufacturers to provide RIMM module samples that booted in systems running Windows(R) '98, and Windows NT," Marlow noted. Next Toshiba RIMM modules powered Intel's RDRAM system demonstration at Comdex in November 1998. "We're pleased we could help Intel beat their aggressive target of having a working PC platform by the end of 1998," Marlow said.