Samsung shipping samples of 512Mbit GDDR3

[one]

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20041209PR202.html

Samsung shipping samples of 512Mbit GDDR3

Press release; Jack Lu, DigiTimes.com [Thursday 9 December 2004]

Samsung Electronics has begun shipping samples of 512Mbit GDDR3 chips targeting the high-end graphics-card and the game-console markets.

The 512Mbit GDDR3 chips will operate at a bandwidth of up to 1.6Gbits/sec, and mass production is expected to begin in early 2005, Samsung said in a December 8 press release. No other information about the new chips was given.

GDDR3 is very similar to DDR memory, but it is designed to reach higher clock rates and to improve high-speed signaling for graphics processing. Compared to the preceding GDDR1, GDDR3 operates at 1.8V, as opposed to the 2.5V of GDDR1. GDDR3 also integrates on-chip signal termination and a dynamically controlled impedance output driver; a 4-bit prefetch; and a unidirectional, single-ended data strobe, according to Tom’s Hardware Guide.

Market analysts predict that the 2005 graphics DRAM market will grow 30%, year-on-year, reaching close to US$1.47 billion, Samsung said in the press release.

 

[Ooh-videogames]

So 512mbit= 256 megabytes?

 

[plat]

So 512mbit= 256 megabytes?

64 megabytes

 

[Ooh-videogames]

So 512mbit= 256 megabytes?

64 megabytes

So that means this memory will be embedded in a processor.

 

[plat]

So 512mbit= 256 megabytes?

64 megabytes

So that means this memory will be embedded in a processor.

all it means it you can have more storage with less chips

 

[V3]

I suppose Xbox Next will use 8 of these for 512 MB of total memory and 51GB/s of bandwidth.

 

[Ooh-videogames]

Is it safe to assume Nintendo will not be using GDDR3, does anyone know anything about Mosys memory and if they made any significant advances?

 

[V3]

Nintendo might go with Mosys again, but ATI will probably try to influence them to use GDDR3.

 

[Ooh-videogames]

Nintendo might go with Mosys again, but ATI will probably try to influence them to use GDDR3.

I'm curious as to what are of benefits of going with GDDR3?

 

[Farid]

I suppose Xbox Next will use 8 of these for 512 MB of total memory and 51GB/s of bandwidth.

Does somebody remember how many RAM chips Xbox contained at launch, was that 4?
That would give us a hint about what's seems possible and what's not.

 

[Guden Oden]

I'm curious as to what are of benefits of going with GDDR3?

No particular benefits per se, other than it clocks faster than previous DDR generations and is a well-established memory type that companies like ATi have a lot of practice dealing with.

Memories like 1T-SRAM on the other hand have actual benefits, like very high efficiency by reducing first-access latency, hiding page breaks and memory refreshes etc. On the other hand it also has drawbacks too (bigger die area than standard DRAM, runs hotter).

 

[London Geezer]

Why are they using "Mbit"? So confusing! I always thought the "bit" nomenclature was mainly used for bandwidth measurements and "byte" for storage/size. These guys use "bit" for everything...

Sorry, very early.

 

[Guden Oden]

Tradition. Memory sizes have always been measured in mbits for as long as I can remember. Well, not entirely correct perhaps since I probably first started taking note of memory chip sizes being given in bits in the wee early 90s and my memory stretches quite a bit farther back than that! Not sure what size was common for a memchip back then. Maybe 4mbit or so?

Even earlier than that I guess memory chips were down to kilobit sizes, there were 16 drams for the half-megabyte soldered in as standard in my Amiga A500 for example. I think there were 16 chips for 64kbyte memory in the early C64 bread-boxes too now that I think about it. Things sure have changed in the computer industry, today 64k won't even hold a BIOS image for a standard PC, nor will 512k.

Then again, cars have grown almost as much as computer memory! Just think of all the SUVs we have today!

 

[phat]

Why are they using "Mbit"? So confusing! I always thought the "bit" nomenclature was mainly used for bandwidth measurements and "byte" for storage/size. These guys use "bit" for everything...

Sorry, very early.

Has to do with addressibility. A 512 Mbit chip implies that to access one byte, you either clock 8 bits serially from one chip, or 1 bit from 8 chips in parallel, or compromise somewhere in between.

Of course, if the 512 Mb number was flattened from 2x256 Mb or 4x128 Mb, then the addressibility implications would be misleading. Regardless, memory chip sizes are given in bits because their cells are generally not laid out for byte accesses.