Rambus yesterday began shipping a series of DDR SDRAM memory controller designs pitched a chip designers who want to build the technology into their own processor cores.

In addition to DDR, the Rambus "interface and physical layer cells" support DDR 2 up to 800MHz, along with GDDR 1, 2 and 3 at up to 1.6GHz.

Crucially, the technology also works with Rambus' own would-be next-generation memory standard, XDR DRAM, courtesy of "an optional performance mode". So by buying Rambus IP now, chip designers are inherently paving the way to support the next major standard - if Rambus gets its way, of course.

Rambus said its DDR interface circuits are designed for a wide variety of standard CMOS processes, including 90nm, 130nm and 180nm nodes. The company can ship you designs today if you're a customer of TSMC's 130nm process. Rambus DDR memory controller interfaces for consumer and graphics applications are available now, the company said, while those for main memory applications will be available "soon". ®

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