Micron, Microsoft partner on Xbox RAM
PrintDDR SDRAM chosen instead of Rambus
Posted in Channel, 5th December 2000 13:37 GMT
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US Dramurai Micron has been contracted by Microsoft to supply DDR SDRAM for the upcoming Xbox console.
Neither company would say how much the contract is worth, but since it covers a six-year period, it's likely to be significant.
Each machine is currently specced to 64MB of memory, but that could well increase by the time of the console's launch late next year. Microsoft has already raised the spec. on the Xbox's hard drive, which has grown from 8GB to 40GB.
Micron will apparently supply 200MHz 2Mb x 32 DDR SDRAMs.
Of course, it doesn't matter a jot who will supply Microsoft with drives and RAM, so yesterday's announcement is probably more about stressing Microsoft's supply chain - in marked contrast to Sony's grumblings about how component shortages are preventing it shipping sufficient PlayStation 2s to meet demand.
The PlayStation 2 uses Rambus' RDRAM, DDR SDRAM's rival in the high performance memory stakes. ®
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