To: Dave B who wrote (29593 ) 9/15/1999 2:27:00 PM From: unclewest Read Replies (3) | Respond to
This four-way tune-up yields an overall performance gain of 7 to 10 percent over a similarly configured 440BX-based system, according to Barbara Ehle, product marketing manager for Dell Computer Corp.'s Dimension line. Industry benchmarks don't test concurrent processing, which the new chip set supports, so actual gains could be greater.< Another limitation for the first generation of PCs with Rambus memory will be microprocessors with processor bus speeds that cannot take full advantage of Rambus' bus speed, and lack of application programs that exploit concurrency. Because of this, some business benchmarks may see little improvement. Preliminary data indicates that current memory/processor bandwidth restrictions seriously impact performance gains as processors reach core frequencies of 600 MHz and higher. As more application programs are written to take advantage of the additional bandwidth, and as Windows 2000 becomes more widely used, the benefits of Rambus memory will increase dramatically. Rambus will be an important technology for achieving peak performance from application programs introduced in 2000.
