Rambus DRAMs exceed 1-GHz speeds

Rambus DRAMs exceed 1-GHz speeds
By SBN news staff, Semiconductor Business News
July 31, 2000 (2:51 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20000731S0012

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Rambus Inc. here today (July 31) disclosed chip-testing developments with partners to push the speed of Rambus DRAMs to 1,066-MHz speeds, an increase of 33 percent over current RDRAM products. Rambus said the faster memory is the first DRAM capable of transferring data at speeds over 1 gigahertz.

The 1,066-MHz RDRAM is a result of higher-speed testing, which will enable manufacturers to "bin" faster parts from existing 800-MHz RDRAM devices. The announcement — made with a number of Rambus licensees and partners — comes at a time when some analysts are questioning their forecasts for RDRAM shipments, following Intel Corp.'s decision to include PC133 synchronous DRAM support for its upcoming Pentium 4.

Rambus said the initial applications for the faster RDRAM chips will serve consumer, graphics, and communications systems, which can use the Rambu s channel on a single device to achieve 2.1-gigabits per second bandwidth. These systems include OC-192 line cards, video consoles, high-definition TVs, set-top boxes, digital video recorders, and sealed box Information appliances.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. Ltd. in South Korea today (July 31) both indicated that they were gearing up to offer the 1,066-MHz RDRAM. Cypress Semiconductor Corp. in San Jose said it has worked with Rambus to support the higher-speed memories with a series of Direct Rambus clock generators for consumer and PC markets.

"We are now sampling 533-MHz DRCGs [Direct Rambus clock generators], which provide full support for 1,066-MHz RDRAM-based systems," said Ian Chen, marketing director for Cypress Semiconductor's Timing Technology Division.

Advantest Corp. of Japan is now shipping a 1,066-MHz test cell, which "includes the 64-site T5592 production tester and M6751A microBGA handler," said Gary Fleeman, memory product manager for the company, based in the U.S.

Rambus said a number of licensees and partners are planning support for customers in 2001, including Samsung, Hyundai, Toshiba, NEC, Infineon, Cypress, Integrated Circuit Systems Inc. (ICS), International Microcircuits Inc. (IMI), and Advantest. No projections were given on anticipated volumes of 1,066-MHz RDRAM memories.