Rambus Ships 50 Million XDR Memory Chips On PlayStation 3's Behalf

Rambus has just announced that it has shipped more than 50 million XDR DRAM memory chips worldwide. XDR memory chips use a patented chip architecture that makes it the most powerful memory type in the world, based on some of the company's innovations on the memory playground.

The company's XDR memory chips are able to operate at speeds of 4.8 Gbps and can provide peak data transfer rates of up to 9.6 GB/s using a single, 2-byte wide XDR DRAM. However, speed is not everything when it comes to XDR, as the chips are built on Rambus' proprietary low-voltage, low-power Differential Rambus Signaling Level (DRSL), Octal Data Rate (ODR) technology, that pumps 8 data bits in a single clock cycle.

"The demand for high-performance, cost-effective memory solutions continues to grow dramatically," said Yoshitaka Kinoshita, officer for the Digital Consumer Division of Elpida Memory, Inc. "Thanks to the XDR memory architecture, Elpida can provide our customers superior DRAM products enabling amazing new capabilities."

Since the chips can deliver incredible data transfer rates and an unmatched performance, they are especially used in professional hardware, such as high-load servers and hardcore graphics computing. More than that, high-performance graphics consoles have also accounted for a large number of chips, and Sony's PlayStation 3 rigs have had their share.

According to Sony, the company has shipped over 10 million units, which means that about 20 percent of Rambus' production roamed to the gamers' houses.

"The XDR memory architecture is an ideal solution for advanced consumer and computing applications," said Sharon Holt, senior vice president of worldwide sales, licensing and marketing at Rambus. "Our complete XDR memory solution and comprehensive engineering services minimize risk and help our customers bring breakthrough products to market."

Rambus has yet another reason to celebrate the XDR technology. The company has just been cleared out of the allegations regarding antitrust practice on the memory market after about ten years of continuous trials with the other memory industry titans. The XDR memory is about to pay off not only in the huge amount of sold chips, but also in royalty fees the company will start collecting from its licensees.