Rambus is a company that is better known for its patents than its products for PCs. RAMBUS products can be found in plenty of home electronics, video game consoles and other platforms that requires high data transfer rates. Rambus has demonstrated its latest memory technology, XDR, about to enter the next generation. XDR2 DRAM will offer twice the bandwidth of the fastest GDDR5 memories and will achieve performanceover 10Gbps, which in a memory system can result in bandwidth over 500GB/s. If Rambus can get any interest in XDR2 for PCs remains to be seen, but XDR technology is already found in Sony’s PlayStation 3 console and many HDTV chipsets.
More in the press release;
RAMBUS DEMONSTRATES SUPERIOR POWER EFFICIENCY OF WORLD’S FASTEST MEMORY
Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS), one of the world’s premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed memory architectures, today showcased a silicon demonstration of a complete XDR™ memory system running at data rates up to 7.2Gbps with superior power efficiency. This silicon demonstration consists of Elpida’s recently-announced 1Gb XDR DRAM device and an XIO memory controller transmitting realistic data patterns. The XIO memory controller is up to 3.5 times more power efficient than a GDDR5 controller, and the total memory system can provide up to two times more bandwidth than GDDR5 at equivalent power. In addition, the XIO memory controller demonstrated bi-modal operation with support for both XDR DRAM as well as next-generation XDR2 DRAM.
”Future graphics and multi-core processors require significantly higher memory performance under extremely challenging power and thermal constraints,” said Martin Scott, senior vice president of Research and Technology Development at Rambus. ”This technology demonstration highlights the outstanding power efficiency of the XDR and XDR2 memory architectures at performance levels from 3.2 to 7.2Gbps with scalability to well over 10Gbps.”
This silicon demonstration, shown at Denali MemCon 2009 in San Jose, is the first implementation supporting the XDR memory architecture roadmap incorporating innovations developed as part of Rambus’ Terabyte Bandwidth Initiative. Implemented in the bi-modal XIO memory controller for XDR2 operation, these innovations include:
– Fully Differential Memory Architecture (FDMA) – enhances signal integrity and increases performance through point-to-point differential signaling of clock, data, and command/address (C/A), an industry first;
– FlexLink™ C/A – reduces pin count and increases scalability; and
– Enhanced FlexPhase™ – enables the world’s highest memory signaling rates while simplifying routing and board design.
In addition, the XDR2 memory architecture includes:
– Micro-threading of the DRAM core – introduced by Rambus in early 2005, increases data transfer efficiency and reduces power consumption; and
– 16X Data Rate – allows for extremely high data rates with the use of a relatively low-speed system clock.
Built on these innovations, an XDR2 memory system can provide memory bandwidths of over 500GB/s to an SoC. A single 4Byte-wide, 9.6Gbps XDR2 DRAM device can deliver up to 38.4GB/s of peak bandwidth, and the XDR2 architecture supports a roadmap to device bandwidths of over 50GB/s.
With these capabilities, the XDR and XDR2 memory architectures are scalable across a broad range of performance appropriate for multi-core computing, graphics, gaming, and consumer electronics. The XDR memory architecture has already been adopted in products including the Sony PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, DLP® projectors, Teradici PC-over-IP computing systems, and Toshiba’s Qosmio® laptop PCs and HDTV chip sets.
About Rambus Inc.
Rambus is one of the world’s premier technology licensing companies specializing in the invention and design of high-speed memory architectures. Since its founding in 1990, the Company’s patented innovations, breakthrough technologies and renowned integration expertise have helped industry-leading chip and system companies bring superior products to market. Rambus’ technology and products solve customers’ most complex chip and system-level interface challenges enabling unprecedented performance in computing, communications and consumer electronics applications. Rambus licenses both its world-class patent portfolio as well as its family of leadership and industry-standard interface products. Headquartered in Los Altos, California, Rambus has regional offices in North Carolina, India, Germany, Japan, and Taiwan. Additional information is available atwww.rambus.com.
