Hyundai Electronics Industries has shipped double data rate (DDR) synchronous dynamic random access memory (DRAM) for the first time in the semiconductor industry. The first shipment was made to nVIDIA of the US, which specializes in the production of graphic chipsets, a Hyundai official said.
The DDR synchronous chips make it possible to transmit sets of data with a single signal, making them twice as fast as conventional synchronous DRAM chips. The 64MB chips have a data transmission speed of 333 megahertz, he said.
HEI plans to supply a million of the chips by the end of this year but will increase production volume to 1.5 million a month at the beginning of next year. The next-generation synchronous chips are already being used in servers produced by IBM, and should be widely used as the main memory unit in personal computers from next year, he said. They are currently about 50% more expensive than conventional synchronous units and should still sell at a premium of 20% to 30% next year when mass production commences, he said.
