Top DRAM and Computer Systems Suppliers Support Double Data-Rate Memory.SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 30, 1998-- Open, JEDEC-Approved Memory Standard Offers Cost-Effective High-Bandwidth Performance Providing Ease of Migration, Simplified Design for Today's Applications Eleven dynamic random access memory Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is a type of random access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor within an integrated circuit. Since real capacitors leak charge, the information eventually fades unless the capacitor charge is refreshed periodically. (DRAM) chip suppliers today announced their support for the development and manufacture of Double Data Rate (DDR (Double Data Rate) Refers to an SDRAM memory chip that increases performance by doubling the effective data rate of the frontside bus. For more details, see SDRAM. DDR - Double Data Rate Random Access Memory ) synchronous DRAM (SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM) A type of dynamic RAM (DRAM) memory chip that has been widely used since the late 1990s. SDRAM chips eliminated wait states by dividing the chip into two cell blocks and interleaving data between them. ) memory components and modules. DDR SDRAM is an open standard developed and approved by the Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council See JEDEC. (JEDEC The division of the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) that deals with semiconductor standards (officially, the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association of EIA). JEDEC was formed in 1958 when the Joint Electron Tube Engineering Council (JETEC) split into two Joint Electron Device ) of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, www.ieee.org) A membership organization that includes engineers, scientists and students in electronics and allied fields. . The DDR specification addresses the high data throughput requirements demanded by the industry's dramatic increases in microprocessor speeds. This new memory standard is ideal for today's servers, workstations, personal computers, data communications, and consumer products in which performance parity with the microprocessor is critical. The eleven companies supporting this initiative are Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hyundai, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , LG, Micron, Mitsubishi, NEC (NEC Corporation, Tokyo, www.nec.com, www.necus.com) An electronics conglomerate known in the U.S. for its monitors. In Japan, it had the lion's share of the PC market until the late 1990s (see PC 98). NEC was founded in Tokyo in 1899 as Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. , Samsung, Siemens, and Toshiba. Today, Silicon Graphics also announced support for system designs using DDR SDRAM technology. See related SGI (SGI, Sunnyvale, CA, www.sgi.com) A manufacturer of workstations and servers, founded in 1982 by Jim Clark. The company was founded as Silicon Graphics, Inc., but changed to its acronym in 1999. announcement this date and IBM quote below. Recent Industry Forums Demonstrate Broad Support At a recent, unprecedented series of sponsored DDR technical forums in Silicon Valley, attended by over 50 major computer system and supporting technology companies, presentations from system design leaders clearly stated the technical and business reasons why DDR could become the next widely adopted DRAM technology. Support for DDR SDRAM with clear product introduction plans was also demonstrated by memory enabling technology leaders including logic, clock control and connector companies. For details go to http//www.hpl.hp.com/hosted/mtc/ What people are saying: "An industry-wide push for DDR is crucial to its adoption," said Jim Handy, director and principal analyst at San Jose market researcher Dataquest. This demonstrates the industry's seriousness about this technology." "DDR SDRAM offers immediate advantages in terms of performance and cost for applications that require large memory configurations or that require an evolutionary range of performance from 66MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. to 200Mhz," said Bert McComas, principal at market research firm Inquest, Gilbert, Ariz. "This criteria applies to servers, workstations and data communications. Many other applications can just as easily benefit from this continuity and flexibility." "At a minimum, DDR SDRAM can capture a respectable 12 to 17 percent of DRAM demand by mid-2000, " said Victor de Dios, president of De Dios and Associates, a Newark, Calif.-based semiconductor market research firm. "Demand can increase substantially beyond that level as the market realizes its cost-performance advantages versus more costly alternatives. DDR also offers less risk for both computer and DRAM manufacturers in this uncertain time." "The emerging DDR technology provides improved performance (double bandwidth) while minimizing changes to existing system designs," said Vijay Lund, director of advanced server engineering, IBM. "DDR includes reliability features -- such as improved error-correction -- that allow us to build systems with high availability. The efforts of JEDEC to define a common DDR specification gives us confidence that we will be able to accommodate future system requirements in performance and capacity in a cost-efficient manner." Technology backgrounder available upon request. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion