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To: phbolton who wrote (46091)	6/2/1999 2:38:00 PM
From: DJBEINO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 53903

IBM says it won't drop Rambus By Andrew MacLellan Electronic Buyers' News (06/02/99, 02:05:55 PM EDT) IBM Corp. is denying a report that the company has dropped its support for a new high-bandwidth memory interface that is being promoted by Intel Corp. for use in next-generation PCs. A spokesman for IBM Microelectronics, the computer giant's semiconductor arm based in East Fishkill, N.Y., said the company still plans to manufacture memory chips using the Direct Rambus DRAM interface, contrary to a report that appeared in a trade publication this week. While IBM Microelectronics has never been on the vanguard of Direct RDRAM development and plays a relatively minor role in the merchant DRAM market, the company said it still expects to field a Rambus part. Additionally, a representative from IBM's PC division in Austin, Texas, said that, from a system-level perspective, the company is similarly supportive of the Rambus platform and intends to equip its high-end commercial PCs and workstations with the interface. At the low end of the market, where intense pricing pressure has prompted a number of PC vendors to explore several memory-IC options, IBM is looking at which architecture will best meet that segment's low-cost needs, the representative said. “The truth of the matter is that in our high-end commercial PCs and NT workstations, which are called IntelliStations, we will continue to be using the Rambus product,” the representative said. “[As for] our low-end commercial PCs, we are currently evaluating whether to use the Rambus product or PC133." Since it entered development more than two years ago, Direct RDRAM has been the subject of heated debate between rival industry factions. Intel and Rambus Inc., which developed the 1.6-Gbyte/s interface, are promoting it as a means to close the performance gap between Pentium microprocessors and lagging DRAM speeds. However, DRAM suppliers are supporting the architecture somewhat reluctantly because of the added royalties they must pay for rights to the proprietary technology. In response to Rambus, a number of memory vendors have been advocating the use of PC133 SDRAM, a lower-performing part that serves as a follow-on to the PC100 standard that now dominates the market. By endorsing the open standard, suppliers believe they can eventually reach Rambus-class performance by taking smaller, more incremental steps. The confirmation by Intel earlier this year that the introduction of Direct RDRAM memory and a supporting core logic chipset will be delayed until late in the third quarter touched off a new round of speculation surrounding the fate of the Rambus architecture. In the weeks since the delay was announced, many of those memory vendors less committed to the Rambus path have been pushing for industrywide adoption of PC133, an option Intel has so far refused to endorse. If IBM, which is one of the industry's leading PC makers, were to be seen wavering in its support, Rambus' position as the heir to the DRAM throne could be jeopardized, according to observers.However, Subodh Toprani, vice president and general manager of logic products for Rambus, Mountain View, Calif., said he had heard of no weakening of IBM's resolve to manufacture Direct RDRAM, and added that executives from Rambus and IBM Microelectronics met as recently as last week. "It was a surprise to us as well because we never had any indication from IBM Micro that they weren't going to be using Rambus," Toprani said. "And we have heard nothing in our informal contacts with IBM PC that they weren't going to use Rambus." ebnews.com