14 DAY TRIAL // Random access memory based on DDR3 technology is going to debut less and less over the next few years, until it is completely replaced by DDR4. Probably sooner rather than later given the rate of DDR4 product releases.
It is actually quite surprising, to a certain extent, that DDR4 RAM news are coming almost once a week already. After all, processors with DDR4 support are still quite few in number.
Only Intel's ultra high end Core i7-5000 series of Haswell-E central processing units have memory controllers with support for it on the desktop front, and the server market gets the Xeon E5-2600 v3 series.
That means that only hardcore workstations, servers and gaming systems can use DDR4 RAM for now. And this won't change until later this year, maybe.
And yet Transcend has released not one or two, but four new sets of DDR4 RAM products: UDIMMs, RDIMMs, ECC-DIMMs and ECC SO-DIMMs.
The new Transcend DDR4 RAM
UDIMM and RDIMM memory module form factors are associated with servers, for the most part, which means that they are intended for enterprises and businesses.
Meanwhile, DIMM is the standard form factor for normal PCs, while SO-DIMMs are most likely to be found in laptops. SO-DIMMs can also land in small form factor servers, however, as well as HTPCs and nettops.
In any case, the RAM modules and kits all function at 2,133 MHz, and thus are capable of up to 17 GB/s memory bandwidth.
Moreover, since they are DDR4 modules they get away with a current of just 1.2V, not 1.5 V or 1.65 V as would have been demanded by DDR3, 1.35V by low-voltage DDR3.
Cloud computing, supercomputers and virtualization will be the main playground for the new dynamic random access memory.
Availability
Long-DIMM modules of 4 GB and 8 GB have been prepared, along with 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB and 32 GB RDIMMs, 4 GB / 8 GB ECC-DIMMs, and 8 GB ECC SO-DIMMs.
The best performance will come out on Haswell-E CPU-ready X99 chipset motherboards, and the latest Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 server family processor, preferably in dual-socket configs.
