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Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (28855)	9/7/1999 1:33:00 AM
From: Alan Bell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Carl, Motherboards are already in the territory where good high speed designs techniques are needed. The 100 (now 133Mhz) FSB, AGB, and 66Mhz PCI all require it. Most of the techniques that are described in the Rambus design guides are relevant to other aspects of board (including motherboard) design. Rambus just makes it more exacting. It doesn't change the basic principles or concerns. The CAD tool industry has built tools that allow solid high speed boards to be built. One tool is for signal integrity analysis - viewlogic.com This finds all the impedance problems on a board by doing "field solving." Other CAD tool makers build similar tools. They would point out problems requiring necking at vias, for example. The boards have to be built by competent design groups with expensive tools. But the majors (Dell, Compaq, HP, etc) have that expertise. I'll bet that Rambus staff is reviewing designs for the big players that ask. It is certainly true, as you say, that Rambus lives closer to the edge. But they have added (at least) two features that make designs more robust - the signals are ordered and never need to cross over. This means that no via are needed. Secondly, they send a reference voltage from the controller to the Rimm. The controller periodically examines the return signals and adjusts the reference voltage to place equal margins for both high and low values. (SSTL-2 doesn't do this). I wouldn't buy a motherboard from a garage shop, but the market has already shaken those players out. All these questions and many more will be answered in about a month when Dell starts shipping. Are you predicting that Dell will not be able to build a reliable machine based on RDRam? -- Alan