Intel Corp has formed a partnership with the big five DRAM memory chip manufacturers – Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Microelectronics, Micron Technology, Infineon Technologies, and NEC Hitachi Memory – to develop a future DRAM architecture. The companies are looking to develop a successor to the upcoming double data rate 2 specification, which they would introduce around 2004.
After the problems Intel has had getting Rambus DRAMs accepted as an industry standard, the company wants to be at the forefront of establishing new memory technologies. DDR-2 itself is not expected to debut until 2002 or 2003.
Intel could incorporate technologies like NEC’s Virtual Channel SDRAM into a new architecture and virtually guarantee industry wide-support. However, it not yet clear what kind of architecture the companies will favor – currently DDR SDRAMs use a parallel data bus while Rambus uses a packet data design. Rambus Inc, the developer of the memory connection technology, is conspicuously absent.
