Samsung Corp says that it is ahead of the rest of the memory chip industry with the launch of the first 1Gb Double Data Rate Synchronous DRAM (DDR-SDRAM). Samsung says that the chips, the first built using 0.13 micron process technology, are 30% or 40% smaller than similar devices being developed by its competitors. The 350MHz DDR-SDRAM will be available for sampling, in 128Mb and 256Mb versions by the end of the year.
However, Peter Glaskowsky at the Microprocessor Report thinks that it be a while before the 1Gb chips match the price/performance levels of existing technology. The first shipments of any new DRAM generation have very little effect on the market, he said, it takes at least a year for such products to become affordable even for niche applications, and another year or two before high-volume customers can afford them. Long before 1-Gb DIMMs [memory modules] with the new chips become affordable, customers will be able to get reasonably priced 1Gb DIMMs based on 256Mb chips. Samsung expects that 1Gb DRAMs will start to be used in high-end systems and supercomputers from next year. It says that the market will be worth $102bn in 2005.
Glaskowsky thinks that Samsung’s claims that it is the first with the 1Gb DDR-SDRAMs may be over be over-confident. The fact that Samsung has announced these chips today does not necessarily mean that it is ahead of competitors that have not yet announced similar products, he said. It is entirely possible that other major DRAM companies are just as far along with 1Gb SDRAMs, but expect to use their limited production volumes in-house… Samsung simply can’t afford not to push ahead. Falling behind in process technology is tantamount to failure for any DRAM company. Samsung has to work on chips like the new 1Gb SDRAM today if it hopes to be able to make money on them in 2001, he said.
