What's a good buy!

[Livius]

The i815 will be out in a few days/weeks but there is romour they will not be as widely available as we'd like. But then again this might be just a rumour.

[Aerobed]

2K,

If RAMbus is a succes, it will become eventually become cheaper than DRAM. Just a simple matter of supply and demand. You saw it happen with EDO RAM and 100 Mhz DRAM, you'll see it happen with DRAM and RAMbus (if it manages to live up to its promise :-) )

The fact that RAMbus is expensive now has nothing to do with the cost of manufacturing it, which should be about the same as DRAM. It's just that there is a too small supply for everybody who wants it.

Small supply + high demand = high price.

[Livius]

Yes, but the success of SDRAM happened because SDRAM delivered. RDRAM does not, and when the DDR cometh the RDRAM will look even sorrier. So go for the i815 and, if you can't wait, settle for a BX or a good 133A.

[bacon]

Check out anandtech. For a little article about RAMBUS. http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1245


[This message has been edited by bacon (edited 10 June 2000).]

[This message has been edited by bacon (edited 10 June 2000).]

[paulcs]

The i815 is more of an i810 with an AGP slot than a BX chipset with a 1/4 AGP divider. Many of us are hoping it will *work* like a BX chipset with a 1/4 AGP divider, however. I has just about all of the i810's features, including integrated video, which users should be able to disable with a jumper.

It could be worth waiting for. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Wombat]

Sorry Aerobed,
RAMBUS is inherently more expensive.

1) You must own a RAMBUS license (royalties).

2) You have to completely retool the fab to build RDRAM (DDR-SDRAM will not face this hurdle).

3) RDRAM cannot be tested until the entire stick is completed and covered with the heat-bond. Once bad chip means the entire stick is trash. Add that to an 800MHz+ design, and it gets really messy.

4) Where would RDRAM go in the future? A nice part about parallel buses (like the DRAM interface) is that you can add more bits to the path, as well as up the frequency.