Rambus Unveils Micro-Threading in DRAM Cores (PS3 ??)

[Brimstone]

Geez, what's with all the bitches in this thread!

At the very least it's interesting news. I for one thank the original poster for posting this.

The link with PS3 is plausible. Afterall, Rambus is a MAJOR partner in the PS3 project. The article mentions enhancing 3D data access and if anything about XDR was lacking, it would be random access times which this tech seems to aid in resolving. It compares performance against competing GDDR SDRAM.

Last I checked Rambus tech isn't exactly high volume in PC graphics cards or other consoles plans this or next gen!

I've seen worse links. Biatches!

Is this for XDR? It only mentions GDDR. I get the feeling this is could be another patent to pursue litigation if needed. Rambus wants everyone to use XDR and if the GDDR-4 specs call for this, Rambus will take any DRAM company to court that fabs it and any company creating a memory controller (ATI).

 

[j^aws]

Geez, what's with all the bitches in this thread!

At the very least it's interesting news. I for one thank the original poster for posting this.

The link with PS3 is plausible. Afterall, Rambus is a MAJOR partner in the PS3 project. The article mentions enhancing 3D data access and if anything about XDR was lacking, it would be random access times which this tech seems to aid in resolving. It compares performance against competing GDDR SDRAM.

Last I checked Rambus tech isn't exactly high volume in PC graphics cards or other consoles plans this or next gen!

I've seen worse links. Biatches!

Is this for XDR? It only mentions GDDR. I get the feeling this is could be another patent to pursue litigation if needed. Rambus wants everyone to use XDR and if the GDDR-4 specs call for this, Rambus will take any DRAM company to court that fabs it and any company creating a memory controller (ATI).

It mentions "DRAM core" enhancements, so sounds applicable to any DynamicRAM cores. The benefits are only compared to GDDR as a common reference. Rambus is an IP company much like Immersion, so litigation is part of their business for good or bad.

 

[pc999]

Well it seems that everytime some big corporation announces they're developing a new architecture, some people will always do 2+2=3 and expect the new technology to be featured in the next most popular yet-to-be-released piece of technology. In this case, PS3, or Xbox or Dissolution.

Same for that Physics Chip thing.

Guess we'll have to wait and see, but my take on this is, don't come to conclusions too quickly.

Should be a lot more easy to put a PPU in a console than this.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Why's that?

 

[Brimstone]

Rambus said it calls the new technique "microthreading," and company engineers reported that Rambus has filed and received an undisclosed number of patents for the technology. While the technique is generic enough that it could be applied to several different types of memory, it will likely work best with Rambus' own eXtended Data Rate (XDR) memory, said Craig Hampel, director of the architecture group at Rambus.

Rambus Extends Threading Into DRAM

So maybe we will see XDR-G memory at some point.

 

[j^aws]

Rambus said it calls the new technique "microthreading," and company engineers reported that Rambus has filed and received an undisclosed number of patents for the technology. While the technique is generic enough that it could be applied to several different types of memory, it will likely work best with Rambus' own eXtended Data Rate (XDR) memory, said Craig Hampel, director of the architecture group at Rambus.

Rambus Extends Threading Into DRAM

So maybe we will see XDR-G memory at some point.

Puurrrrfect if true...will be interesting if it makes it into NV5x...

 

[Npl]

From what I understood this is quite similar to the Crossbars in both ATI and Nvidias Cards

Using it with PS3 and its 64bit Mem-Bus seem not logical, 32 Bit would be a Vertex and there likely not much times when you would need a single one of them, two or three is more likley. Makes sense with those 256+ Bit busses though. But I could be confused and wrong.

 

[j^aws]

From what I understood this is quite similar to the Crossbars in both ATI and Nvidias Cards

Using it with PS3 and its 64bit Mem-Bus seem not logical, 32 Bit would be a Vertex and there likely not much times when you would need a single one of them, two or three is more likley. Makes sense with those 256+ Bit busses though. But I could be confused and wrong.

I'm not sure what you mean by the crossbars above...

...
As memories have grown larger and larger and memory controllers have grown faster and faster, the block of memory the graphics chip or microprocessor has fetched is usually a large contiguous block of data that contains the sought-after bits, Hampel said. While effective, the technology isn't the most efficient. About 4 bytes of information are associated with each pixel, Hampel said, including colorspace characteristics and the Z-buffer, which determines if the 3D object is actually able to be seen from the user's perspective, rather than obstructed or hidden.

Instead, the Rambus threading technique allows a microprocessor or GPU to search for several smaller blocks of data, a more efficient use of bandwidth. Doing so, however, requires a memory controller and interface with the a large amount of "control bandwidth". "[Microthreading] maps better to XDR, in our estimation," Hampel said.
...

I think your analogy is off the mark in this instance. It seems the tech is more suited to smaller bus widths like 64 bit XDR, than say 256 bit width of GDDR. This is because the tech is 'searching' for smaller blocks of randomly spread data to relieve bus bottle necks than stream in a 'large chunk' to flood the narrower bus. This is not to say the wider bus wouldn't benefit but the narrower bus 'needs' it more.

 

[Npl]

I'm not sure what you mean by the crossbars above...

"Crossbar Memory Controller", obviously ATI has a similar implementation with another name, a quick google search will reveal better explainations than I could offer with my english. ex: http://www.lostcircuits.com/video/msi_8822/

 

[Brimstone]

This isn't a new idea. CPU companies have been developing chips capable of processing multiple threads for several years. But this approach will be useful for improving graphics performance in new designs, said Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research.

Rambus hopes to license its microthreading architecture to memory companies and graphics processor vendors, but hasn't signed any partners yet, Hampel said. The company has patented some aspects of the technology and is waiting for final approval of other patents, he said. Rambus doesn't expect the technology to appear in DRAM chips for at least a couple of years.

In order to take advantage of the microthreading architecture, both the graphics chip and memory chips within a system must be tweaked to support this technology, Hampel said. However, the architecture is compatible with existing graphics hardware and software, he said.

Memory chips with this technology could be used in the Playstation 3 gaming console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment, Peddie said. Rambus has already acknowledged its participation in developing memory interfaces for the Cell processor, a joint project of Sony, IBM, and Toshiba, which is expected to be used in the Playstation console

Rambus pushes threading technology for DRAM

 

[Inane_Dork]

So the PS3 is more than 2 years away, huh?

 

[DeanoC]

...
About 4 bytes of information are associated with each pixel, Hampel said, including colorspace characteristics and the Z-buffer, which determines if the 3D object is actually able to be seen from the user's perspective, rather than obstructed or hidden.
..

Errr shouldn't that be 8-20 bytes per pixel (3 bytes depth, 1 byte stencil, 4-16 byte colour) would be a more reasonable figure, nobody this century has used 4 bytes per pixel (that would be 565 colour and 16bit depth)...