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San Mateo, Calif. - At least three of the world's largest DRAM makers have been quietly working on a new high-performance synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) technology that could block the acceptance of the controversial Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) technology, EBN learned last week.
Fujitsu Ltd., Samsung Co. Ltd., Hitachi Ltd., and at least five other suppliers are backing a new technology called Double Data Rate (DDR) DRAM that doubles the chip bandwidth without increasing the frequency.
The companies have kept the effort under wraps, although a few leading OEMs have been briefed about the first versions of the DDR devices, which will run at 100 MHz while sending out data at 200 MHz.
Fujitsu expects the devices to be available sometime next year, said Jack Konrath, director of strategic marketing for memory products at Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc., San Jose.
"Its purpose is to enable the operation of SDRAMs from 100 MHz to 200 MHz," he said. "In one clock cycle, we can read or write 2 bits of data. In effect, it doubles the clock."
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