Intel, major Dramurai firm up DDR2 memory plans

At a presentation at the forum, Geof Findlay, strategic business manager at Intel, was bolstered by speakers from Infineon, Elpida, Hynix, Samsung and Micron. The purpose of the briefing was to describe how ready DDR2 is and the kind of speed bins and densities the market can expect.

Findlay showed off this slide, which shows the different memory types INTC will support.

Most of the major Dramurai will start to produce DDR2 chips and modules during the first half of 2004, and Intel will promote the type in desktops, in servers, in workstations and for notebooks. Why DDR2? The official line is that it has headroom to scale for the desktop, for the server market, DDR2-400 avoids the "challenges" DDR400 gave on the power and thermal capacity front.

This slide shows how Intel believes DDR2 will displace DDR over the next couple of years.

Elpida said that so far it's received external investment of over $800 million to expand its 12-inch wafer fabrication. Fifty per cent of its memory products will be from its own fabs, and 50% using foundries. In 2005 it will start making DDR2-533 and DDR2-667, while we'll see DDR2-800 in 2006. DDR-2, says Elpida, allows for a 72% lower IO voltage, a 50% smaller package, better bandwidth and 50% less power.

Samsung said that over 10% of its total memory production in 2004 will be DDR2.