Elpida Starts Making GDDR5 Graphics Memory, Delivers 2Gb Chip

Either the economic recession is finally going away or hardware makers have discovered a new taste for daring forays and experiments. This is what some of the latest developments on the IT market seem to suggest. For instance, Transcend recently decided to see what would happen if it started providing Class 10 SDXC memory cards. Now, Elpida has come forth and announced that it, too, is about to expand its business outlook in its own way.

To be specific, Elpida completed the development of its very first 2Gb high-end graphics memory chip. Until last year, the company did not own any IP (intellectual property) that would have allowed it to make this move, but the acquisition of Qimonda remedied this disadvantage. The new offering is a 2Gb product that, its manufacturer hopes, will make its way into high-end graphics controllers.

The chip is a 2Gb GDDR5 (Graphics Double Data Rate 5) solution based on the 50nm manufacturing process technology. It can function at up to 7.0 GHz and, when it finally enters the mass production stage, will come in both an x32, as well as an x16 I/O configuration. Furthermore, because it is subjected to Elpida's proprietary test method, ultra-high speed tests are unnecessary. This cuts down on mass manufacturing testing costs and, thus, on the final price.

The 2Gb GDDR5 chip was created in the company's Munich Design Center and is slated to start sampling to partners sometime next month. Mass production should commence during the third quarter, when the Hiroshima Plant is expected to take over all production responsibilities. Eventually, the hardware developer hopes to see its creation become part of game consoles and PC graphics, as well as other fields, such as digital image processing, video conversion, science and technology, and physical simulation. The double frame buffer size, compared to 1Gb memory, should prove quite useful in such applications.