14 DAY TRIAL // In the wake of having its patent claims against NVIDIA denied in court, Rambus saw some favorable developments in the decision of Samsung Electronics Co. to start the manufacture of XDR DRAM memory chips. Through this development, Rambus's technology will finally begin to see more widespread availability, after a period during which XDR manufacturing was halted because of the crumbling of Quimonda, the manufacturer that previously handled the production of said memory.
The XDR is interesting because it achieves performances quite higher than those attainable by the current mainstream memory modules. Rambus' memory has an excellent bandwidth and operates on less power, while still meeting the demands of heavy computing tasks set by consumer and computing electronics alike. Samsung, as already stated, will be the new provider of XDR chips, beginning with the manufacture of 1 Gigabit XDR DRAM devices.
"Samsung's market leadership means system manufacturers can be assured of a reliable supply of our XDR DRAM," Sharon Holt, senior vice president of Licensing and Marketing at Rambus, said. "With XDR memory's world-leading bandwidth performance, designers can meet their system requirements with fewer devices and greater power efficiency."
This development comes as a breath of fresh air after repeated downturns represented by the extended lack of an XDR supplier and the repeated rejection of its patent claims. Samsung will also benefit from this step, as the high-speed memory will undoubtedly improve the performance of its own products if it is used in their production. So far, only the 1Gb XDR DRAM module has been announced, but there is no rule that states Samsung has to limit itself to this model alone.
Time will tell whether Samsung Electronics Co. will extend its manufacturing services to more Rambus-based products. Until more developments occur, designers can enjoy the power efficiency delivered by the XDR without having to make any compromise to performance.