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To: richard surckla who wrote (48548)	7/31/2000 8:45:23 PM
From: richard surckla	Respond to of 93625

RAMBUS PRESS RELEASE!!... Message 14140644

To: richard surckla who wrote (48548)	7/31/2000 9:40:26 PM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Rambus insists yields improving, 1-GHz speeds will be available next year Semiconductor Business News (07/31/00, 06:29:58 PM EDT) MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Rambus Inc. officials here today assured skeptics that 1.066-GHz Direct Rambus DRAMs will be available next year. The Mountain View company today announced the faster Direct RDRAM speed grade, which Rambus says can be pulled from the production of existing memories by using high-speed testers (see today's story). While Rambus claims the faster Direct RDRAMs are the first DRAMs capable of transferring data at speeds over 1 GHz, some observers wonder how many of those parts will actually be available early next year. Currently, the only volume producer of Direct RDRAMs for PC makers is Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which is not yet seeing high yields on the current 800-MHz speed grade of memories, according to industry sources. Memory analyst Sherry Garber of Semico Research Inc. in Phoenix said today's 1.066-GHz announcement was "a public relations tactic to stop the Rambus stock decline." The company's stock took a hit last week, falling 30%, after Intel Corp. backed away from its stance of only supporting Direct Rambus DRAMs for the Pentium 4 processor. Intel confirmed it was developing an alternative PC133 chip set for Pentium 4, and it is considering possible double data rate (DDR) support as well. Analysts have said that 800-MHz Direct RDRAM yields are low and producers are struggling with the learning curve. Three months ago, Samsung officials indicated that about 20% of the company's Direct Rambus production was in 800-MHz speed grade. But in an interview today, Rambus vice president of worldwide marketing Avo Kanadjian said yields are now at high levels on 800-MHz Direct RDRAMs. He said the 1.066-GHz speed will start yielding from those same production lines because the memories do not need to meet all the stringent electrical load specifications required for 800-MHz memories in PCs. "The 1-GHz part will be shipped to the consumer electronics, graphics and communications markets," he said. "In those applications, only four Direct RDRAM chips are needed which will be soldered directly to the motherboard without needing a module or chip set. As a result, the loading is far less demanding, and some parts should yield at 1.066-GHz speed from normal 'bin-out testing,'" Kanadjian said today's announcement was made to emphasize that a chip infrastucture already existed to accommodate the next higher speed grade of Rambus memories, which he expects to be available next year. He said Advantest Corp. of Japan already has a high-speed tester that can operate at 1-GHz speed. Cypress Semiconductor Corp. of San Jose today also announced a Direct Rambus clock generator supporting higher speeds (see today's story).

To: richard surckla who wrote (48548)	8/1/2000 10:53:44 AM
From: gnuman	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 93625

Richard Surkla, re:, 1 GHz RDRAM Dave B. and I had a discussion on this over a month ago. Message 13938143 At that time I expressed the opinion it wouldn't be used in PC's and Rambus confirmed this. While the narrow RIMM bus has it's advantages, one of the penalties is a very narrow "valid data" window. The requirement for 4 "reads" to assemble 64 bits means the "valid data" eye is about 1/4 that of DDR which reads all 64 bits in one cycle. With PC800 I believe it's about 125 pico seconds. Going to PC1000 it will drop to 100 ps or less. Compare this to the Samsung presentation that shows the "valid data" window at 500 ps for DDR266, about four times as wide as PC800. This is a critical parameter that shouldn't be discounted. inqst.com (page 19) I was impressed by the quality of the waveforms shown in this presentation. Certainly doesn't look like the "unstable" claims of many. JMHO's