New DRAM technology boosts throughput eightfold

Rambus, Toshiba and Elpida have jointly revealed the specifications of their XDR DRAM devices.

Rambus, Toshiba and Elpida have jointly revealed the specifications of their XDR DRAM.

XDR DRAM uses Rambus' XDR memory interface technology, formerly codenamed Yellowstone.

Running at 3.2GHz, XDR DRAM offers eight times the bandwidth of today's best-in-class PC memory.

As Rambus announced earlier this year, Sony Corp and Sony Computer Entertainment have licensed the XDR memory interface for use in future broadband applications.

The XDR DRAM family has been designed to offer mainstream memory solutions for a broad range of applications.

XDR DRAM is expected to initially serve the high-bandwidth needs of consumer, graphics, and networking applications, with eventual applicability for PC main memory, server and mobile systems when these applications require higher levels of bandwidth.

XDR DRAM can provide the cost benefits of mainstream memory while still outperforming low-volume speciality DRAMs.

XDR DRAM offers significant cost savings by providing the same system bandwidth as alternatives with fewer DRAM components, low-cost four-layer PCBs, and inexpensive industry-standard packages.

Initially XDR DRAM will be offered at 3.2GHz with a roadmap to 6.4GHz and beyond, enabling memory system bandwidths up to 100Gbyte/s.

XDR DRAM will be available in multiple speed bins, device densities, and device widths.

With densities ranging from 256Mbit to 8Gbit, and device widths ranging from 1 to 32bit, XDR DRAM satisfies the needs of both high-bandwidth and high-capacity systems.

XDR memory's novel matrix topology allows point-to-point differential data interconnects to scale to multigigahertz speeds, while the bused address and command signals allow a scalable range of memory system capacity supporting from one to 36 DRAM devices.

"Rambus is pleased that XDR DRAM is being supported by industry leaders.

The XDR family provides a fresh approach to memory system design and will resolve bandwidth bottlenecks, enabling rich feature sets in next-generation broadband systems", said Laura Stark, Vice President of the Memory Interface Division at Rambus.

"With XDR memory, design engineers can successfully implement high performance systems at low system price points".

The XDR infrastructure, such as DRAM models, controller I/O cells, clock generators, data sheets and system design guides, are available today for semiconductor and system design.

From chip design to system integration and volume production, Rambus provides comprehensive services, support and a single point of contact for the entire memory system design to guarantee compatibility across multiple DRAM component vendors.

Toshiba and Elpida expect to begin shipping XDR DRAM in 2004, ramping to volume production in 2005.

Back to top