PNY provides peek at Rambus plans

Electronic News, March 16, 1998

Parsipanny, N.J.--Memory module maker PNY Technologies recently provided a look at its plans to come to market with direct Rambus DRAM. In the meantime, PNY said it is now offering 100MHz synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs) based on Intel's current PC-100 SDRAM specifications.

The PC-100 modules will be used as base memory for the next generation PCs which utilize a system architecture running at 1OOMHz in 1998. These are "to be broadly available in the second quarter of 1998," PNY said. PNY's PC-100 DIMM modules are designed in densities up to 128MB, with the highest density module configured as 16Mx72 with ECC, utilizing 64MB SDRAM devices.

Intel's PC SDRAM DIMM is designed to support the 100MHz bus and Pentium II processor. The new line reflects the growing need for more memory performing at faster speeds. Jay Scocchio, contract design manager for PNY, said the new product is "in anticipation of the market's migration to 100MHz (bus speeds)." The modules are designed for Intel's AL 440LX motherboard and other 440LX chipset-based boards.

To follow these parts in the marketplace, PNY and Rambus said that PNY will manufacture and distribute memory modules that support direct Rambus DRAMs. The modules, also known as RIMMs, "will play a major role in the PC main memory business starting in 1999," PNY said.

According to PNY product engineering manager Robert Wavra, "PNY continues to invest in the equipment and training required to support next generation memory architectures such as Rambus." Mr. Wavra said he expects that PNY's facilities here in Parsipanny, in Santa, Clara, Calif. and Bourdeaux, France will cover all of the companies' needs for functional, applications and environmental testing of the parts.

The new technology will enable the DRAM industry's highest level of performance to date--1.5 gigabytes per second (GB/sec) of sustained bandwidth from a single device. In addition, the technology is expected to span multiple generations of DRAM devices, from 32-megabit to 1-gigabit densities. Direct Rambus technology should give original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) a stable memory interface for the next five years.

"For the past 10 years, processor performance has doubled every 18 months, but memory performance has not kept pace. In effect, memory has become the principal bottleneck to system performance," Geoff Tate, president/CEO of Rambus, says. "With the help of Intel and our other partners, we believe we are well on our way to meeting this goal."

Samples of direct Rambus DRAMs are expected to be available later this year, with volume production in 1999. Direct RDRAMs currently ship in volume in video game systems, add-in PC graphics cards, graphics workstations and consumer PCs from Gateway 2000 and Micron Electronics. The Rambus interface can be supported with 32MB, 64MB, 246MB, and 1GB DRAM densities, and PNY also produces a full line of concurrent Rambus modules.

According to market research firm In-Stat's "DRAM Market Quarterly Forecast Update," the RDRAM share of the DRAM market is expected to be about 30 percent by the year 2000 and close to 50 percent by 2001. Many are watching these memory "after-marketers" to see how and if they will continue to play in the space as the time and money investments required to stay current continue to increase.