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

To: Don Green who wrote (31907)	10/10/1999 1:40:00 AM
From: Dave B	Respond to of 93625

Don, Good find. Here's the Summary: ---------------------------------- The Rambus Case Intel is the primary mover behind Rambus. However, what is one to make of delay after delay in the introduction of the 820/Camino chipset, which is intended to support Rambus? Many PC gurus - particularly those who are deeply into alternatives to Intel, such as AMD, harken to these delays with relish, stating that it appears that Intel is having more trouble than it can handle in bringing the technology to market. Some are suggesting that PC133 SDRAMs - which Intel had originally refused to support, but is now including in its product line (as referred to from Intel itself) - are the wave of the future, with DDR SDRAM following it. The following would support the case for Rambus: First, it should be noted that Rambus is not a new technology. In fact, it's been in use for years in Nintendo. Tardiness - even extreme tardiness - is commonplace. Although it can be claimed that DDR SDRAM's apparent status as first-to-market gives it an edge, one should not underestimate the might of Intel. In fact, on August 19th, AMD announced that it had licensed the Rambus technology. Second, though DDR SDRAM sounds like a super fast solution today, we are on the cusp of CPUs in the gigahertz range. Although it doubles SDRAM rates, the limits of the current technology keep it from approaching the potential of Rambus. (Note, though, that DDR SDRAM is an evolutionary step, and that the intention is that it be followed by further changes (currently termed DDR2), which may take it into the same rates that Rambus promises. Third, nearly all of the manufacturers involved in the AMI2 consortium have licensed the Rambus technology. This can be interpreted as either a writing-on-the-wall approach, or as a covering-all-bases approach. The DDR SDRAM Case What could make DDR SDRAM the likely winner? Although delays are common in technology releases, Intel's 820 (Camino) chipset, which would support Rambus, is more than a year overdue, and the much ballyhooed unveiling scheduled for Monday, September 27th was canceled. Intel is not releasing a definitive explanation. However, according to a Rambus, Inc. press release of September 27th, the Camino chipset will not consistly support three Rambus memory modules - the design for which manufacturers have built motherboards. The relevant portion of this release follows: Some issues with platforms supporting three RIMM? module connectors have been identified, and Intel, Rambus and the OEMs are working to quickly resolve them. While the three-connector implementations offer OEMs maximum configuration flexibility, they result in over 1000 permutations of connectors, module designs, frequency grades, optional parity/ECC for system test. The testing has shown that some configurations have issues relating to the combination of the memory system components, module configurations, and motherboard design. This leaves several major corporations in the lurch, including Hewlett Packard, Compaq, and Dell. Interestingly, two PC manufacturers are relatively unaffected by this turn of events: Micron and IBM are using a competing chipset by Via. Both have been major players in DDR SDRAM, who determined that competitiveness required that they get involved with Rambus. This turn of events could make them leaders in the technology that DDR SDRAM was intended to stop. Two major advantages to the evolutionary approach of DDR SDRAM are: It allows for a smooth transition from current technologies. It is an open standard, which means that any manufacturer may utilize it. Another significant point to consider is that DDR SDRAM is not the end of the evolutionary line. AMI2 is also working on the next generation, DDR2, and is attacking several issues to improve overall system performance.