Intel validates PC1066

[voxace]

Have you heard the news - at least it's new to me.
Intel has officially validated PC1066. Which means full support for it in upcoming chipsets. So maybe RDRAM is not dead.
I think it is only the 32 bit stuff though.
Makes the future look good for P4's though.
Does this mean more development and continued use of RDRAM well into the future - or is this just a minor thing that intel have done to please a few customers?
Or am I wrong about all this?

[BaldHeadedDork]

Kinda right, kinda wrong.

Intel is not totally abandoning RDRAM. They are going to use Rambus memory on future chipsets, but they are going to be server chipsets. The current 850E will be the last desktop RDRAM chipset from Intel.

RDRAM does have some performance advantages over DDR. Intel has been right about that since the launch of the 820VC chipset. But the market didn't believe the extra performance was worth the price being charged for a Rambus system. That made AMD very attractive and Intel lost billions in sales because of it.

Its a mistake they don't want to make again. The contract with Rambus is up, so Intel is moving its desktop chipsets to DDR to make them more price competitive with AMD. But the server market is less sensitive to price, and RDRAM should really shine on the upcoming 64 bit systems, so Intel is keeping Rambus around for that market.


BHD

[voxace]

That's a bit dissapointing. I'm sure RDRAM would still have the potential to beat Dual DDR in the future.
But it's dual DDR for me next now...