64bit RDRAM?

[74merc]

sounds interesting, but it seems a good portion of the original concept was to make a cheap memory type, at least as far as the interface goes...
16bit pathway @ 400mhz, ok, yea, fast enough I suppose, the 64bit pathway may help on some of the latency issues, bandwidth should go through the roof, but will this not bring the price that much higher?
not to mention the fact that the memory will be as much a pain as the CPU to upgrade soon, PC2400, PC2700 and the new RDRAM will require new motherboards, correct? and there's no end to the upgrades in sight.
it seems like now that we should be able to upgrade processors (AMD to 2ghz and Northwood hopefully) by just dropping in a new CPU, but the memory system is going to be substandard within a few months.
any word on the stopping point of DDR or RDRAM to level out?
PC100/133 has been a fairly constant standard for at least 4? years now?
we're going to see higher prices in RAM again soon simply because of all the different varieties of it out there, PC100/133 has been cheap because primarily its all thats been produced for years, now its being replaced by new types that change every few months.
any comments ladies and gents?

----------------------
Independant thought is good.
It won't hurt for long.

 

[somerandomguy]

Don't forget this memories potential application in graphics cards. If bandwidth goes through the roof, so will performance.

"Ignorance is bliss, but I tend to get screwed over."

 

[mpjesse]

RDRAM is not a realistic solution for graphics cards- that's why no one uses RDRAM. Graphics cards require memory that has EXTREMELY low latency- like 3.5ns as seen in the GeForce 3. RDRAM is nowhere close and probably never will be (in the near future). Don't forget that the crap is expensive. I don't think we'll ever see RDRAM on a graphics card (thank god!) Lest we also forget that AMD and nVidia are now partners- they both are BIG proponents of DDR SDRAM. ATi and ST (makers of the Kyro) can't afford to invest in a expensive memory technology like RDRAM- so they'll never go there either.

-MP Jesse

-MP Jesse

"Signatures Still Suck"

 

[mpjesse]

Probably the biggest advantage to DDR SDRAM is the scalability of it. It doesn't take the research efforts of a whole company to come up with faster DDR SDRAM. DDR can be adapted to any speed of SDRAM- as seen with PC150 (PC2400 in DDR). Anyone can make DDR faster by simply boosting clock speeds and reducing latency to 5ns. Soon, we'll see PC2700 with PC166 memory. It's too easy.

On the other hand, Rambus has to go to the drawing board (all by themselves) on ways to increase peformance of RDRAM. This is why they will ultimately fail-they have no partners other than Intel (which is quickly fading). How long has PC800 RDRAM been out? Quite a frigin while and Rambus does't promise any improvement until next year! How long has DDR been out? Just over six months and we already seen increases of performance to PC2400. I doubt that Rambus will make it to a version of RDRAM with a 32bit interface.

-MP Jesse

"Signatures Still Suck"

 

[FatBurger]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with mpjesse on that one. However, I do think that if they get the datapath opened up to 64-bit, it'll work nicely. It'll probably be too little, too late, knowing the history of Rambus, Inc. But who knows.

Apple? Macintosh? What are these strange words you speak?

 

[74merc]

right, I agree with that, but are there any DDR motherboards that will run @ 150 or 166mhz?
you can't run DDR boards asynchroniously, can you? at least none available.
Fatburger, I think you called it, too little too late, but if they manage 12.8GBps bandwidth, it may not be...

----------------------
Independant thought is good.
It won't hurt for long.

 

[somerandomguy]

Isn't the 64-bit RAM on their road map for release at 2005?

"Ignorance is bliss, but I tend to get screwed over."

 

[74merc]

the reason I brought it up was because it was on the daily news on THWG front page.

----------------------
Independant thought is good.
It won't hurt for long.

 

[somerandomguy]

Speaking of news on the front page, did you see this RAM? http://www.qdrsram.com/

QDR SRRAM running at 333Mhz = 5.25Gb/second

"Ignorance is bliss, but I tend to get screwed over."

 

[lhgpoobaa]

QDR @ 333.
that 333Mhz, is that the final data transfer frequency or the base frequency?
i.e.
is it 333/4 = 83mhz core
or 333 core x4 = effective 1333mhz

My Hamster has 512MB of SDRAM @ 150Mhz CAS 2!

 

[74merc]

given the bandwidth numbers, I think we're safe to assume 333 x4.

----------------------
Independant thought is good.
It won't hurt for long.

 

[FatBurger]

Yes, 64-bit is scheduled for 2005, by which time we'll have other memory that will be a lot better.

Apple? Macintosh? What are these strange words you speak?

 

[somerandomguy]

Base frequency

"Ignorance is bliss, but I tend to get screwed over."