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

To: Bilow who wrote (74166)	6/4/2001 9:06:08 PM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Intel Offers Alternatives to Rambus for P4 New chip set supports less-pricey SDRAM and DDR memory standards. Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service Monday, June 04, 2001 TAIPEI, TAIWAN -- Intel bowed to the demands of PC buyers and vendors Monday when it unveiled its new 845 Pentium 4 chip set, which will work with SDRAM and DDR instead of the more expensive RDRAM. The company introduced the new chip set, and displayed more than 63 PC motherboards built around it, at the Computex trade show here Monday. Intel expects to ship the new chip set this September, says Timothy Change, a senior field sales engineer at Intel. The motherboards on display Monday use the first version of the 845, which supports only SDRAM. A second version that will support both SDRAM and DDR should become available in the first quarter of 2002, says William Siu, vice president and general manager of Intel's Desktop Platforms Group. Siu demonstrated the SDRAM-only chip set during his keynote Monday. Intel: 845 No Rambus Dis Until now, Intel, a staunch supporter of Rambus's proprietary memory interface, has offered only its RDRAM-based 850 chip set for use with the Pentium 4. That chip set doesn't let PC makers use cheaper SDRAM or DDR-DRAM memory chips and has caused controversy in the PC industry because of the higher price of chips based on the Rambus technology. Intel introduced the 845 to give system vendors a choice of memory technologies, Siu says. RDRAM remains the best technology for most high-performance systems. "We believe that the people who demand the maximum performance from the Pentium 4 processor platforms will continue to favor RDRAM solutions," he says. However, Intel realizes that not everyone wants to pay for Rambus performance, and the 845 will serve these users best, he says. "We're providing the customer with a choice depending on the level of memory performance they desire. We think that the consumer choice will ultimately set the dynamics of memory usage for the new platforms," Siu says. Siu is quick to note that Intel sees the price difference between RDRAM and its alternatives continuing to narrow. Smaller, Cheaper Systems In addition to the likely lower prices of machines based on the new chip set (thanks to the cheaper memory they will use), systems may also be physically smaller. The 845 features a smaller "thermal," the casing around the processor CPU that holds the heat sink. The smaller casing will allow for smaller systems, Change says. Intel may later introduce another chip set with the smaller thermal to support Rambus. Also at the showcase, Intel demonstrated working prototypes of small-form-factor consumer PCs based on the Pentium 4, including two that feature the upcoming 2-GHz Pentium 4 processor. The 2-GHz chip is set to ship in mid-August, according to David Wang, an Intel technical support engineer. Each uses the Intel 850 chip set. The new PCs have limited expansion capabilities but are designed to sell at a price attractive to consumers, most likely below $1000, Wang says. Designers achieved the small size of the systems by putting power-supply components in an enlarged adapter on the power cord. Although the systems lack internal expansion ports, users will be able to add capabilities to them through multiple USB interfaces. PCs like the concepts shown could appear in the United States and Japan in about seven months, Wang says.

To: Bilow who wrote (74166)	6/5/2001 4:16:51 PM
From: Jdaasoc	Respond to of 93625

carl: AMD 760MP chipset not too shabby either. One better hope that RMBS gets it's legal act together on DDR. anandtech.com john

To: Bilow who wrote (74166)	6/5/2001 6:12:43 PM
From: Jdaasoc	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

carl: I was 100% right on registered DDR DRAM being the preferred adopted standard for DDR. AMD 760MP supports it exclusively; Intel's only DDR standard is registered so far per the pdf link you posted to about 2 weeks ago. Who is left that has not supported it. VIA. If you start to chart it as the DDR memory type, I will not call you a "liar for fun" anymore. Deal? john xbitlabs.com Tuesday, June 05, 2001 AMD-760MP Mainboard for Less than $200? [2:28 am] Gavric Anandtech website has posted a word about a dual-processor mainboard for AMD processors which MSI now demonstrates at Computex. The board named MS-6502 is based on AMD-760MP chipset. Its specifications are the following: ATX form-factor, Dual Socket A, 4 PC2100/PC1600 Registered ECC DDR SDRAM DIMM (maximal capacity is 4GB), 2 x 64bit/33MHz PCI, 3 x 32bit/33MHz PCI, AGP Pro, ATA-100 RAID controller by Promise. MS-6502 is notably similar to the already known Thunder K7 from Tyan (pricing at $550-600), but it will be much cheaper. As an MSI official said, «we want this board to be sold for not more than $200». Well, given the pricy dual-channel SCSI controller being replaced with ATA-100 RAID, this pricing bar can be maintained, but as for practice... yet it’s hard to say anything for sure. By the by, even if this mainboard will really cost less than $200, we’re unlikely to get a cheap system since only Registered ECC modules can be used. Anyway, MS-6502 will be released no sooner than in Q3 or even Q4, so there is enough time for a situation twist.