Hyundai Electronics Co will ship its first Direct Rambus DRAM products in May, beginning with 0.22 micron 64-Mbit and 72-Mbit densities, according to EE Times. 128/144-Mbit densities will follow in October. Hyundai’s VP of marketing, Mark Ellsbery, told the paper that there would be shortages of RDRAMs this year. Hyundai, originally a supporter of SL-DRAM, was late giving its commitment to the RDRAM market, but now all the major memory chip makers are supporting the technology. Only Fujitsu Ltd has yet to announce its specific product plans. Meanwhile, Intel Corp, which sparked off the interest in Rambus DRAM, is expected to reveal its own plans to use Rambus memory with future processors clearer at the Intel Developer Forum this week. A renewed boom in the DRAM market is expected to result in a rebound in sales among the Korean semiconductor industry, including Samsung Electric Co, the world’s largest DRAM supplier.
