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To: Logain Ablar who wrote (16770)	10/19/1999 4:43:00 PM
From: Alastair McIntosh	Respond to of 17305

More bad news for Rambus? Message 11639022

To: Logain Ablar who wrote (16770)	10/19/1999 7:42:00 PM
From: Andrew Vance	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17305

AV-- I guess I must have my head up my you know what since I disagree with the "majority" view. The RMBS designs are working well in the Playstation and are wroking well in the 2 memory module motherboards. the Camino chipset problem appear on the 3 memory module motherboards designed by Intel. The way I see it, as worst, the RMBS designs will have to go into the 2 module motherbaord designs, most of which are not Intel's. The 3 module motherboards may all have to be scrapped or modified to accept on 2 modules and disonnect the 3rd module from the system. I do nort know if this is possible so we will assume that the motherboards are not reworkable. By reworkable, I also mean they will not be able to plug the correct chipset fix into the socket. Bottom Line to me, this just means you have limited the capacity of memory by 33% by eliminating the 3rd module socket. I do not see this as an issue. For those of us that are old timers, we remember the 8 SIMM slots on the motherboard where we thought 8 - 1 meg modules gave us unlimited capabilities. Then the 4 Meg modules came out and 32 Meg total was more than anyone would need in a lifetime. We then progressed to the larger SIMM modules and then DIMM modules. The modules are now 32 Meg to 256 Meg DIMM Modules where there are 2-4 locations on the boards to place them. most of the boards I have seen had 3 slots for the DIMM modules. As the complexity of the memory modules increase, I am sure the 2 vs 3 module scenarios will not amount to much. Losing one slot and having a higher capcity module for these slots should overcome any real system memory issues eventually. My take on this is that Intel has egg on their face and was hoping to control the market in this arena. We are seeing alittle bit of scapegoating here. I am as skeptical as they come on this subject. We know why the price of DRAM is going up. Latest reports have the PC suppliers talking about backing off on the meomory they provide as standard on systems. Remember when 64Meg was standard. Now 128 Meg is standard but they are bcking off to 96 Meg, it seems. I heard that the 64 Meg DIMMs which were $40 at the OEM Level, have risen to over $100 now. The price of memory has gone up. Now for the clincher. We were told that the Rambus memory modules were twice as expensive as the traditional DRAM. going to PC133 DRAM and by passing the RMBS memory at current pricing levels, allows a great many DRAM producers to cah in big time while DRAM prices are high. Not many producers were fully ramped for RMBS. IF we assume these two types of memory are now competitively priced with little difference is end user price, the higher internal margins favor the PC-133 DRAMs. I would think it a great move to maximize profits on normal DRAM while I could. RMBS RDRAM are "power user" modules anyway and might never see mainstream for awhile. However, you cannot disocount those PC producers that have working 2 module systems that are not beholded to the Intel motherboard designs and might be able to make due with Via chipsets (rumor only). Just like we have been lied to about the extent of the Taiwan quake, so have we not been given the full story on the Camino Chipset and the Rambus designs. The meomory modules work, at the performance levels expected. the only shink in the armor is lack of execution on the part of Intel with their chipset. When the time is right, it will work. there is no such thing as "never getting it to work." As soon as they realize why the Camino Chipset will not work, they will just develop the desogn fix or go back for a complete redesign. They know the failure mode so all that remains is the wrokaround. So much for the conspiracy theory again.<GGG> But at least I put my head into the guillotine and take a stand, even if comes back to haunt me. Then again, if it was a conspiracy against us, and I was right, I wil tell you what really is going on in Area 51.<GGG> Andrew