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Technology Stocks : Micron Only Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bipin Prasad who wrote (49020)	10/6/1999 9:41:00 AM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 53903

Microprocessor Forum: Micron readies DDR memory By Will Wade EE Times (10/05/99, 7:26 p.m. EDT) SAN JOSE, Calif. — Micron Technology Inc. officials are showing working versions of double data-rate DRAM devices, and say they will be able to ship the devices in volume early next year. Not only has the DRAM vendor designed the faster memory chips, its current showcase also features a Micron-designed core logic component to support DDR DRAM. "We expect the design will be qualified by the end of the year," said Dean Klein, vice president of integrated products for the Boise, Idaho-based company. The chips are produced at the 0.18-micron level, and Klein said there is almost no die size penalty, and almost no price penalty, over standard SDRAM. "We are essentially ready to turn on the switch and start turning these things out." The company is showcasing the technology this week at the Microprocessor Forum technical conference. It is currently implemented in a high-performance system, with two Slot 1 microprocessors, and slots for four memory DIMMs and total memory capacity of 2G-bits. The DDR chips are currently available in 64 M-bit densities, although the first 128 M-bit samples are currently being produced at Micron's fab. Klein said the most likely early applications for the technology will be in the high-performance workstation and server markets. Although the company expects to hit volume production within the next few months, the current designs are still showing bugs. Klein said the DDR chips still suffer from reference voltage leakage and asymmetrical data eyes, which are lowering operating speeds. The chips run at 133 MHz, but those speeds are not yet stable. "We expect to have new silicon any day which should eliminate most of those problems," Klein said. "These chips are still first silicon, and this is excellent performance for first silicon." There are also some remaining glitches within the DDR chipset, including package noise and buffer noise, which both reduce operating performance. Klein pinned some of the fault on Lucent Technologies, which fabbed the Northbridge device. A revised version of the product is expected imminently to correct the flaws, he said. Micron is not a core logic vendor, and Klein said the company would prefer not to enter that market. However, the higher priority is to enable sales of the DDR chips. "We're a memory company, but if we have to, we will sell the chipsets ourselves," he said. Micron has provided its chipset design to most of the major core logic vendors at no cost, and Klein predicted that several of these firms have indicated that they will be able to support DDR implementation by early next year. Klein said that DDR DRAM may benefit from the recent misstep of Rambus memory, which was poised to launch late last month until performance flaws emerged at the very last minute. Now it appears that RDRAM-based systems will not appear this year. "This will probably open the window for DDR a little bit wider," he said. In fact, Klein and other Micron executives are not convinced that Rambus will ever become a high-volume memory option in the PC marketplace. "There are still some significant technical issues that need to be worked out, and there are some cost issues that will always be associated with Rambus." eet.com