Intel Leads Testing Of Rambus DRAM Devices

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June 22, 1998 (12:44 PM EDT)

Intel has begun system testing of functional direct Rambus dynamic RAM devices (RDRAM), Rambus said Monday. Toshiba and LG Semiconductor also are testing DRAM devices running at 1.6 gigabytes per second, Rambus added.

"It is exciting to see the first direct RDRAM silicon," said Peter MacWilliams, Intel (company profile) fellow and director of platform architecture for Intel Architecture Labs, in Santa Clara, Calif. "We expect to see several more vendors delivering direct RDRAM silicon in the next quarter, and we believe the industry is still on track to ship direct RDRAM memory technology in PC platforms in 1999."

The Toshiba 64/72-megabit devices have completed functional tests, including pipelined read/write operations at 800 MHz, or 1.6 GB per second. LG Semicon 64/72-megabit direct RDRAM devices are completing engineering testing at Rambus and at LG Semicon in Seoul, South Korea.

Also Monday, Dell and Compaq confirmed their intention to ship PCs using direct Rambus technology for main memory in 1999.

"Rambus has been working with their DRAM licensees to assure that direct RDRAMs will be widely sourced in a timely manner," said Jim Handy, director and principal analyst of Dataquest's Memories Worldwide Service, in San Jose, Calif. "It is key to the PC industry's acceptance of direct Rambus technology that they have achieved this important milestone on time."

This milestone is on track with the technology development program disclosed in December 1996, under which Intel platforms will use direct Rambus memory starting in 1999. In February, Rambus completed the direct RDRAM interface design and distributed it simultaneously to all the company's DRAM licensees.

"The speed with which Toshiba and LG Semicon were able to produce working first silicon on this device underscores the important role Rambus plays as a central design house," said Stephen Cullen, an analyst at In-Stat, in Scottsdale, Ariz. "The compatibility of the interface and testing procedures will ensure the PC industry benefits from a broad source of compatible DRAMs."

Designed for high-volume applications, direct RDRAM devices use conventional DRAM cores, silicon fabrication techniques, and memory modules. Direct Rambus in-line memory modules, called RIMM modules, use standard industry assemblies similar to those of today's dual in-line memory modules. For PC main memory, a direct Rambus memory system will fit within the same physical, power, and thermal profiles of a similarly configured 100-MHz synchronous DRAM memory system.

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