QBM back from the grave

AS REPORTED EARLIER Via said it will use quad band memory technology from Kentron, that will gave a claimed double bandwidth for one DDR memory module, and which will work with both the 266MHz and 333MHz flavours of the memory type.

You can also get faster memory bandwidth with dual DDR chipsets, including Nvidia's NforceX series or Via's own P4X600, but QBM memory is likelier to be less expensive.

QBM has arrived much later than CEO Bob Goodman told us it would when we last spoke to him at the end of last year.

He told us that the first QBM modules would appear at the Intel Developer Forum in Spring 2002. It's possible they were there, but we didn't spot them when we attended that show then.

We believe that there were, in industry-speak, "teething troubles".

Which now appear to be fixed. If the memory technology works as the firms say it will, they could deliver DDR 533 speed at the cost of DDR 333 modules.

When will we see these modules and chipsets in machines? It appears that the first P4X800 QBM chipsets may be sampled in Q1 of 2003, with production starting sometime around CeBIT 2003. µ

See Also
Kentron explains QBM plans
Kentron semaphored QBM questions
Via strikes deal over quad band memory
QBM to tip up next year sometime
Quad band explained
Quad Band "a pipe dream"
Move to DDR "arduous and slow"
SIS joins QBM bandwagon
Via's P4 333 megahurtz killer