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Chipset vendors backing new SDRAM spec
Jack Robertson
Exploiting Intel Corp.'s staunch allegiance to the Direct Rambus DRAM camp, third-party chipset vendors are giving Intel's microprocessor competitors a leg up in the race for market share.
By supporting an emerging 133-MHz SDRAM interface, chipset suppliers such as Via Technologies Inc. are offering an alternative to the Direct RDRAM architecture, which could allow a new breed of mid-range PCs to play against existing Intel-based machines, according to sources.
Via executives and other industry observers point to Advanced Micro Devices Inc. as the most likely processor maker to benefit from the emerging PC133 SDRAM interface, although the tide could carry the likes of Cyrix Corp., Centaur Technology Inc., and Rise Technology Co. as well.
Dean Hays, marketing director for Fremont, Calif.-based Via, said his company works closely with AMD as a third-party supplier, and will ensure compatibility between the upcoming K7 processor family and PC133 SDRAM. And Via is just one of five suppliers slated to make core-logic chipsets with a PC133 interface; the others are Acer Laboratories Inc. and Silicon Integrated Systems Corp., both based in Taiwan; Reliance Computer Corp., San Jose; and Standard Microsystems Corp., Hauppauge, N.Y.
But while its chipset partners are at the ready to help OEMs bridge their processors and memory components, AMD has so far refused to openly endorse the new SDRAM spec.
"We intend to support Direct Rambus as a high-performance memory solution for K7-based systems appearing in the second half of 1999," said a spokesman for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD. "We have not announced a memory specification that will be used in the initial versions of K7 [appearing] in the first half of 1999."
AMD had earlier confirmed that K7 chipsets would support Rambus and the existing PC 100 specification. By embracing PC133, the company could help extend the life of SDRAM in low-end to mid-range markets and spark a battle between the K7 and legacy Intel processors that use the slower PC100 specification.
"If AMD does allow the PC 133 SDRAM market to happen, then indeed there will be a head-to-head competition with Intel in mid-range PCs," said Julia A. Cates, product marketing manager for Rambus Inc., Mountain View, Calif. "But it will be very tough for AMD to compete on these grounds because of everything Intel will throw at them."
Intel, which has called for a decisive shift from the existing PC100 grade to Direct RDRAM, has so far balked at linking its processors to the new 133-MHz chips. Through AMD's active promotion of PC 133, it could ensure a higher-performance option for customers that don't necessarily want their designs tied to the Rambus architecture-and price premium.
"Our Slot A chipset for the K7 can definitely work with PC 133 SDRAMs," Hays said. The faster memory speed could be "a big boost for the AMD K7 to slice away at Intel's middle mainstream PC market."
Hays said PC 133 also would increase the performance of AMD's K6 processors, which have helped the company garner an industry-leading 37% share of the sub-$1,000 PC market, according to market research firm PC Data Inc., Reston, Va.
With Intel fighting to increase its 28% share of the value-PC arena by launching faster, lower-priced Celeron processors, AMD could guard its flank by extending the PC 133 interface to the K6, Hays said-including the soon-to-be-released K6-3 processor, code-named Sharptooth.
For its part, Intel so far has eschewed PC 133 SDRAMs and stuck doggedly to its own roadmap. Bruce Bonner, an analyst for Dataquest Inc., San Jose, suggested that Intel will refrain from promoting PC 133 to avoid complicating its shift to Direct RDRAM for high-end PCs, servers, and workstations.
An Intel spokesman rejoined that the company has been consistent in its reasons for moving from PC 100 SDRAM to Direct RDRAM. "This is the highest-performance, most cost-effective and flexible solution, [with] the longest potential life cycle," he said.
Proponents of PC 133 claim it could take OEMs in an entirely different direction by offering an easy migration path to double-data-rate SDRAM, which they say offers performance on a par with Direct RDRAM. Analyst Tad LaFountain of Needham & Co. Inc., New York, said the upgrade from single-rate PC 133 SDRAM to the much faster DDR chips isn't difficult for OEMs that prefer an evolutionary upgrade, vs. the significant design changes demanded by Direct RDRAM.
Rambus' Cates countered by claiming that the advantages of Direct RDRAM from a platform standpoint will become apparent as the memory moves into volume production and competes favorably against all flavors of SDRAM.
"You must look at the cost/performance advantage that Direct RDRAM brings to the overall PC system. ... It's not just a simple memory chip vs. memory-chip competition," she said.
Rambus also asserts that the upgrade from PC 100 to PC 133 SDRAM isn't as simple as some suggest. "It wasn't a straightforward transition from 66-MHz to 100-MHz memory," Cates said. "It took a lot longer than many expected. I suspect we may see the same problems in moving to PC 133 chips."
When they enter volume production, PC 133 SDRAM chips should be selling at the same price as 100-MHz devices and will be in ample supply, according to Mike Siebert, memory marketing manager for Micron Technology Inc., Boise, Idaho.
"There will be no price premium for PC 133 SDRAMs," Siebert said, adding that the higher speed comes as a natural corollary of the shrink to sub-0.25-micron processes.
Copyright ® 1999 CMP Media Inc.
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