Direct Rambus shows no gains over current memory technology

A paper that will be presented at the 26th International Symposium on Computer Architecture next month will claim that Direct Rambus memory has no performance advantage over 100MHz SDRAMs. The paper, titled A Performance Comparison of Contemporary DRAM Architectures and written by university professors, can be found in PDF format here. Professors Cuppu, Jacob and Mudge examine the performance of standard fast page, EDO, SDRAM, ESDRAM, SLDRAM, RDRAM and direct RDRAM for high end desktops. They conclude that 800Mbps Direct Rambus devices, which are already suffering yield problems as reported here earlier, cannot beat 100MHz cas latency three SDRAMs. The paper is bound to increase pressure on Intel to support the PC-133 and PC-266 SDRAM standards espoused by bitter chipset rival VIA, especially given the fact that the Camino chipset is late. Major Intel customers, including Compaq, are counting on Intel to square the circle on the Rambus dilemma. ® See also What the Hell is...Camino and Rambus