Rambus to demo abtruse memory tech

Rambus staffers will show off some new technology tomorrow at the DesignCon 2001 show.

Much of what the memory company will be demonstrating turns out to be highly technical stuff, of more interest to the electronics engineer than the PC user.

However, Rambus will give demos of its quad-speed signalling technology, QRSL, which "combines the patented double data rate (DDR) technology along with multi-level signalling to transfer four bits per clock cycle in order to achieve... signalling rates of 1.6Gbps, yielding 12.8GBps from a 64-bit bus", as the company puts it. QRSL operates with a clock speed of 400MHz.

You'll note the not-so-subtle reference to Rambus' DDR intellectual property - the basis for much of the company's legal action over the last year - tucked in the middled there...

1.6Gbps is twice the capability of Rambus' current signalling system, at least for its single-channel chips, aimed at consumer and communications applications. Rambus will be describing the technology in detail at the upcoming International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

The company will also show off its Quad SerDes Cell for the first time. QSDC offers a 25 per cent performance improvement over rival SerDes parts, Rambus reckons. Which is great news if you're a maker of network cards or routers, but not to too many others. ®

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