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To: grok who wrote (21511)	6/2/1999 4:52:00 PM
From: MileHigh	Respond to of 93625

DDR SDRAM will make debut in graphics arena A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. Story 3 p.m. EST/noon PST, 6/2/99 By Jack Robertson SAN JOSE -- Double-data-rate SDRAM will crack the PC market in graphics chipsets beginning this fall, a jump-start many memory-chip vendors believe will position DDR as a high-speed contender in other applications as well. Micron, Hitachi, Samsung, and other companies are gearing up their DDR graphics programs months before the double-clocked interface is expected to arrive as main memory in desktop PCs and servers. "Getting an early start as dedicated memory in graphics chipsets will definitely boost DDR," said Jim Sogas, director of DRAM business operations at Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc. in San Jose. Samsung Electronics Inc., which is slated to ramp 128-Mbit chips supporting the Direct Rambus DRAM interface for PCs later this year, is already making its first DDR production shipments to several unidentified graphics vendors. "Graphics-chipset vendors are always the first to jump on a new, faster DRAM," said Avo Kanadjian, vice president of memory marketing at the San Jose company. "They were first to use EDO and the first to use SDRAM. They'll be the first to use DDR." Micron Technology Inc. and Infineon Technologies AG also are shipping DDR SDRAM samples to graphics-accelerator manufacturers in the hope that the sector will be the first to order production quantities of the devices. Desi Rhoden, chairman of Advanced Memory International Inc., a coalition of suppliers that supports DDR, said early adoption by the graphics market could speed the memory's penetration elsewhere. "It endorses and makes DDR more acceptable in other applications," said Rhoden, who works in Tempe, Ariz. "DRAM companies also gain early experience in making the new chip, so it will enter the rest of the PC market as a mature product with no surprises." Some vendors within the DDR camp said a production ramp in the graphics sector could even position DDR ahead of its Direct RDRAM rival in the race for desktop-PC design-ins. Rambus Inc., which designed the Direct RDRAM interface and has received substantial support from Intel Corp., declined to comment. Although vastly smaller than the PC market, the graphics arena stands to offer DDR a respectable incubation, according to observers. George Iwanyc, an analyst at Dataquest Inc., San Jose, estimated that graphics-chipset sales last year exceeded $1.6 billion-a 60% increase over 1997. And he expects similar growth this year. In many ways, Iwanyc said, DDR is well suited as buffer memory in graphics chipsets, particularly because of its wide, 64-bit organization; high speed; and relatively low cost. According to Andreas von Zitzewitz, vice president of operations at Infineon in Munich, Germany, customers are already sampling DDR SDRAM with clock speeds of 300 and even 400 MHz. As frame-buffer memory, DDR would also sidestep many of the timing and interface issues associated with main memory, because the frame buffer communicates directly with the graphics processor without the need for an intervening core-logic chipset. This point-to-point connection gives graphics designers more flexibility, and makes it easier for memory companies to sell an assortment of DDR versions that may test out at various clock speeds, according to proponents. In fact, numerous oddball DDR chip speeds-from 275 to 311 MHz-are expected to show up in many graphics chipsets. Moreover, graphics vendors are free to begin using DDR chips even before details of the so-called PC200 and PC266 DDR SDRAM main-memory specifications are finalized, proponents said.

To: grok who wrote (21511)	6/2/1999 4:58:00 PM
From: MileHigh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

I believe this is an updated IBM piece, looks like new comments, I could be wrong... This piece makes EN look pretty bad. IBM denies it's dropping support for Rambus A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. Story posted noon, EST/9 a.m., PST, 6/2/99 By Andrew MacLellan Electronic Buyers' News EAST FISHKILL, N.Y. -- 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 here, 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 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, Tex., 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." (see story in the Feb. 15 publicationof SBN). 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., the Mountain View, Calif., developer of the 1.6-gigabytes-per-second 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 natural and 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 chip set will be delayed until late in the third quarter touched off a new round of speculation surrounding the fate of the Rambus architecture (see Feb. 10 story). 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, 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."