Micron launches memory for AMD's K10

AS THE TIME for launch of AMD's K10 for desktop slowly approaches, the infrastructure has begun to unfold.

Micron announced sampling of new DDR2 memory chips that are manufactured at 78nm process. Availability of retail modules is set for third quarter of this year, or should we say August and Back-to-School shopping frenzy.

Bandwidth of these chips is rated at 1066 Megabits per second, also known as DDR2-1066. Main advantage of this new process is the fact that 33% faster clocked chips kept the very same stock voltage as the one used on DDR2-800 modules. The 1.8V figure will keep the compatibility with almost all motherboars on the market, including ones that will not enable a user to change the voltage.

Intel's own offerings will also profit from this memory, since both current Core 2 and upcoming Penryn will benefit from running system memory at 1.07 GHz, in 1:1 sync ratio with current line-up, and a boost of bandwidth by 34% per memory channel. This means integrated graphics just might get a boost as well.

Expect these babies in a lot of memory modules from 512MB to 2GB, or should we say 2x512, 2x1024 and 2x2048 memory kits. We're heading for one exciting summer. µ