Samsung licenses Rambus Yellowstone

Cheaper, faster

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

Posted in Channel, 1st July 2003 10:01 GMT

Free research: Application platforms, the state of play

Samsung has licensed Rambus' 'Yellowstone' DRAM technology, the memory technology company said yesterday.

Yellowstone is a chip-level technology designed to align precisely DRAM and system clocks, essentially to simplify process of building memory modules, and makes it easier to drive up data transfer rates.

According to Rambus, it minimises the need to match circuit lengths, to cope with timing constraints and to provide off-chip termination resistors, all of which have to be taken into account to ensure that memory modules synchronise with system. Failure to synchronise precisely typically leads to system crashes.

To date, only Elpida, Sony and Toshiba have licensed Yellowstone. Samsung said it had licensed the technology for "high-performance, low-cost consumer, graphics and networking applications". ®

Free research: Application platforms, the state of play