IDF Fall 2000 Summary

On the Floor - DDR Galore

One would suspect that with the upcoming launch of the Pentium 4 the memory technology being pushed at this fall's IDF would be RDRAM. The show floor proved to paint quite a different view of the memory technology of the future, with far more DDR memory solutions being presented than RDRAM solutions. Since Intel calls for their upcoming Itanium processor to use DDR memory, manufacturers displaying DDR memory solutions were not booed off the scene. Perhaps the most interesting demonstrations of DDR memory did not involve the Itanium at all, but rather the Pentium III and the Athlon.

Below is an example of one memory manufacturer's DDR SDRAM solution. In this case, Hyundia parts are pictured.

One of the most interesting, as well as exciting thing that we got to see on the IDF floor was found at Hyundia's booth. A mere 15 steps away form the Intel pavilion, Hyundia had a little surprise to show off their DDR SDRAM solution. To show the potential for DDR memory use, as well as show that DDR Athlon boards are sure to be here soon, Hyundia had a prototype AMD 760 based motherboard on display powered by an Athlon "Thunderbird" 1GHz CPU.

As many of you know, the 760 chipset is AMD's next generation chipset that is set to follow up the current 750. Among other changes, this board will feature DDR memory, as one can clearly see with these shots below.

Click here to enlarge.

Click here to enlarge.

Also on the DDR front, Micron was displaying a prototype motherboard running their Samurai DDR north bridge that was configured in a dual Socket 370 configuration. Although Micron has vowed that they will not be releasing this chipset to the mass market, it was still neat to see the board in action. Too bad it was behind a glass cage.

Click here to enlarge.