Sources have told The Register that the 10th of January 2000 is an extremely important day for the Intel-Rambus partnership. On that date, Intel exclusivity with Rambus expires, allowing the chip giant to discuss other, alternative memory technologies. The clause in the contract means that Intel may get very excited by things such as double data rate (DDR) synchronous memory, and at the same time announce its Solano-II chipset has gone out for sampling. Very shortly after that, we are given to understand, the fully fledged PC-133 chipset will make its appearance, as previously revealed here. This chipset will avoid the infamous MTH temporary kludge, which hardware reviewers have found has a negative impact on performance. And once those corks are out of their respective bottles, we may eventually see Chipzilla 2000, a big creature which has been slightly humbled by having to listen to the marketplace. Meanwhile, to show the level of support that the industry is giving DDR memory, have a look at this Micron page ® See also 815 comes alive with PC-133 support Intel's Solano, Amador, only a bubble'n'squeak away Intel likely to bring Solano chipset forward