EETimes meldt dat Intel, in een poging om de tragisch lage yields van Rambus DRAMS te vebeteren, besloten heeft om de timing specs van Rambus RIMMs te relaxen. Deze zogenaamde TDP timing spec geeft de tijd weer waarbinnen een signaal van memory controller naar module moet hobbelen. Door deze waarde te verhogen zullen Rambus RIMMetjes minder snel afgekeurd worden en gaan de produktiekosten naar beneden. Dankzij deze maatregel wordt het tevens mogelijk om mobo's met drie RIMM slots te bouwen:
To counter the high prices of Rambus parts, Intel said it increased TDP timing specs — a measure of the maximum time a signal can travel from a memory controller through a system's memory modules — from 1,500 picoseconds to 1,560 ps. The extra 60 ps should help increase the yield of RIMMs as they are tested, and will allow several module makers vexed by the tight timing parameters to get qualified "overnight," said Pete Mueller, engineering manager for the platform components group at Intel."Basically, we realized we had some picoseconds left over," Mueller said, following a presentation at the Intel Developer Forum here.
The timing spec has proved a formidable barrier for RIMM makers, affecting the design of the RIMM's pc-board substrate itself through to the final testing of the board populated with RDRAMs.
[...] While no work is being done to allow for systems with three RIMM slots, the revised timing spec will be able to accommodate such a configuration if Intel decides to add the third slot in the future. "We just didn't want to give that option away," Mueller said. [break] Om de hoge Rambus produktiekosten verder te verlagen willen fabrikanten overgaan op het gebruik van 4-layer PCB's. Op dit moment wordt er nog gebruik gemaakt van duurdere 6 en 8 layer printplaatjes. Verder wordt er gewerkt aan goedkopere packaging en komt er nieuwe testapparatuur waarmee meer RIMMs tegelijkertijd getest kunnen worden. Volgens Intel en Rambus Inc. komt de belangrijkste kostenverlaging pas wanneer fabrikanten hun Rambus produktie verhogen. Samsung ontkent echter dat de prijzen op dit moment kunstmatig hoog worden gehouden door de kleine clan van Rambus fabrikanten: [/break] For all that is being done to lower test, packaging and manufacturing costs, Intel and Rambus said the most significant cost reduction will come when more companies produces RDRAMs in volume and price competition ensues. To date, Intel has qualified RDRAMs made by Hyundai, Infineon, NEC, Samsung and Toshiba. As a result, these chip makers are still able to sell the devices with a heavy premium that, Intel contends, does not reflect the cost of manufacturing the devices. "We know the cost has been very inflated," Intel's Mueller said.
But one of the current RDRAM vendors, Samsung, denied that prices are artificially inflated, and said there is no great difference between the RDRAM selling price and its cost of production. "I've heard that 20 percent figure from Intel about 10 times," said Jay Hoon Chung, manager of DRAM marketing for Samsung Electronics Co. (Seoul, South Korea), currently the largest supplier of RDRAMs. "But 20 percent is not probable by our point of view. We expect the price gap will be 1.5x by the fourth quarter."
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