Will The New 800mhz FSB Technology Only Use DDR Memory?

[KANJI]

Just wondering if there will be some RDRAM systems available when the 800mhz fsb technology comes out, or will there be only DDR systems available.

Also, is this coming out soon? I'm debating whether or not I should wait for it.

Thanks

[yiotis]

Intel will only release DDR chipsets for the prescott.Maybe other manufacturers (like SiS) will have RDRAM solutions.However RDRAM is a dying technology and i don't recommend it

[marv]

Originally posted by KANJI
Just wondering if there will be some RDRAM systems available when the 800mhz fsb technology comes out, or will there be only DDR systems available.

Also, is this coming out soon? I'm debating whether or not I should wait for it.

Thanks

This maybe of interest to you, I don't think I would wait for a RDRAM chipset though. Intel will release Canterwood and some of the Springdale chipsets will support DDR400 (and 800fsb). I would pass up Granite bay, and wait for one of these if your not in a hurry.

On RDRAM:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1044029944

Little cut and paste on the Canterwood and Springdale below, also from Xbits:

New Intel Chipsets: 800MHz Bus and DDR400 in Q2 2003 [9:43 pm] Rat

The launching of new CPUs with 800MHz bus scheduled for Q2 pushed Intel to introduce some changes to their chipset plans as well. By the time Pentium 4 with 800MHz bus is out, the company should be ready to offer new chipsets supporting them and offering adequate memory bus bandwidth. As you know, the bandwidth of the 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus equals 6.4GB/sec.

Almost together with the launching of the new Pentium 4 with 800MHz bus, Intel was planning to announce two new chipsets aka Springdale and Canterwood. However at first they were not intended for the faster 800MHz bus and were supposed to support only dual-channel DDR266/DDR333 SDRAM. Now Intel changed its initial plans in this respect accordingly.

Both chipsets, Springdale and Canterwood, will acquire 800MHz bus support. To be able to provide the desired memory bus bandwidth, both chipsets will also get the support of dual-channel DDR400 SDRAM, which bandwidth is most likely to equal the needed 6.4GB/sec.

As you remember, Intel used to vote against the DDR400 SDRAM standard, however now they had to change their attitude towards this memory type. But the DDR400 standard Intel is going to support will still be different from the currently existing “unannounced” DDR400 standard.

As I found out, DDR400 SDRAM will be supported by Intel chipsets only in case 800MHz system bus frequency is used. As soon as the system bus in your computer is set to 400/533MHz, the platforms built on the new Intel chipsets will automatically offer only two options: DDR266 or DDR333 SDRAM.

The company expects the “true” DDR400 SDRAM to appear in the market in Q1 2003. By January the major memory makers and suppliers should have their products ready for sampling. So far Intel has already sent out the preliminary DDR400 rev 0.9 spec to the memory guys, who claim to have the engineering samples meeting this specs already at hand.

Speaking about the chipsets coming out in Q2 next year to support the new Pentium 4 processors with 800MHz system bus, we would like to mention their following features:

Canterwood. The chipset is positioned as a high-performance solution, which should come to replace i850E and Intel E7205. It will support Pentium 4 with 800/533MHz bus and Hyper-Threading technology. Two DDR SDRAM channels will be capable of working with DDR400/DDR333/DDR266 with ECC and also Turbo Mode (a special work mode increasing the performance). Also the chipset will support AGP 8x interface and will go with an ICH5 South Bridge featuring SerialATA-150 support.
Springdale-PE. This mainstream solution will come to replace i845PE. This core logic will support Pentium 4 and Celeron CPUs with 800/533/400MHz bus and dual-channel DDR400/DDR333/DDR266 SDRAM. No ECC will be supported. Also the chipset will boast AGP 8x interface support and will go with an ICH5 South Bridge featuring SerialATA-150.
Springdale-P. This is a cut-down version of the previous chipset differing from Springdale-PE by the absence of support for CPUs with 800MHz system bus and DDR400 SDRAM.
Springdale-GE. This chipset will replace the today’s i845GE. It is none other but the already described above Springdale-PE but with the integrated graphics core.
Moreover, we managed to learn the official names of the upcoming Canterwood and Springdale chipsets. Canterwood will be launched as i875P, Springdale-PE will be called i865E, Springdale-GE will be announced as i865GE and the “lite” Springdale-P – as i865P.
Intel expects the chipsets supporting processors with 800MHz bus to make about 25% of all shipments in Q2, which will grow up to 50% in Q3. By the end of next year 65% of all Intel chipsets will support the new 800MHz processor bus.

Note that Springdale and Canterwood are also compatible with the future 90nm Prescott core due in the end of next year.


And then we have the SIS655:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1781




-

[KANJI]

Marv: Thanks for all that great information!

Yiotis: I should wait for the new stuff, but it doesn't look like I have a choice.


Basically, I need to have something in 1 month. The most I can wait is till the middle of March.

Do you guys think the chipsets with the 800MHz FSB and corresponding DDR memory will be out by then?

[jjyiz28]

Originally posted by KANJI
Marv: Thanks for all that great information!

Yiotis: I should wait for the new stuff, but it doesn't look like I have a choice.


Basically, I need to have something in 1 month. The most I can wait is till the middle of March.

Do you guys think the chipsets with the 800MHz FSB and corresponding DDR memory will be out by then?

no, april

[Philip]

rdram will be back on top with the release of 1200. has 9.??GB/sec of bandwidth. from what i've seen on this site, i too thought it was dying, but it isn't. Rambus is still in full swing.

[Isezumi]

Originally posted by Philip
rdram will be back on top with the release of 1200. has 9.??GB/sec of bandwidth. from what i've seen on this site, i too thought it was dying, but it isn't. Rambus is still in full swing.

Dont you mean 1600? for an 800MHz FSB.

[Philip]

the next rdram is the 1200 version. now we have 1066, next is 1200.

[marv]

Originally posted by Philip
rdram will be back on top with the release of 1200. has 9.??GB/sec of bandwidth. from what i've seen on this site, i too thought it was dying, but it isn't. Rambus is still in full swing.

PC1200 has 4.8GB/s of maximum bandwidth, IIRC. PC1200 is not available, that I am aware of, and no existing chipset supports PC1200. Rambus "full swing", as you call it, depends on chipset makers other than Intel at the moment. This of course could change.

[Philip]

Rambus is still fully pursuing and expanding their company and rimm technology. like i said, the next release of their ram is 1200. stated by their website. and yes, there is no support for their ram right now from intel, however, like you said, SIS will most likely produce boards for this ram. this stuff will be killer. however, it won't be available in mass till fall of this year.

[punkrawk]

rambus is fighting the inevetiable. even their parent company intel is moving to phase it out, and yes , it does keep fighting back, but that only ensures existence for a fnew more months. if rdram chipsets become scare, youll see manufactureres stop making rdram, driving up the price, so no matter what the speed, itll be very expensive, and drive most consumers away, and thatll be the end of rdram. i hope they manage to stay in there cause they do create some good stuff, but they dont seem to have a single vote of confidence in the iundustry from other big companies.

[s1203372]

Originally posted by Philip
Rambus is still fully pursuing and expanding their company and rimm technology. like i said, the next release of their ram is 1200. stated by their website. and yes, there is no support for their ram right now from intel, however, like you said, SIS will most likely produce boards for this ram. this stuff will be killer. however, it won't be available in mass till fall of this year.

Dual channel PC1200 RDRAM has 4.8 GB/sec of bandwidth. Dual-channel PC3200 DDR (as used in the canterwood and springdale chipsets) has 6.4 GB/sec of bandwidth. The only way RDRAM could even match the FSB speed of the 800 MHz P4's (also 6.4 GB/sec) is to go quad-channel. SIS is develping a quad channel solution, but with 4 controllers, it's going to be much more expensive than DCDDDR and likely offer no benefit.

[Philip]

the next rimm is 1200mhz four channel ram providing 9.6gb/sec bandwidth. from www.rambus.com

edit: now imagine that dual channel.

wait, is that dual channel????

[superjohnny]

Originally posted by Philip
rdram will be back on top with the release of 1200. has 9.??GB/sec of bandwidth. from what i've seen on this site, i too thought it was dying, but it isn't. Rambus is still in full swing.

Rambus is in full swing? Uh oh, who are they suing now?

If you need to upgrade in a month check out the 845E and PE chipsets with Corsair, Kingston or Crucial memory.

[s1203372]

Originally posted by Philip
the next rimm is 1200mhz four channel ram providing 9.6gb/sec bandwidth. from www.rambus.com

edit: now imagine that dual channel.

wait, is that dual channel????

Actually, it's quad channel - four memory controllers instead of 2. Dual channel PC1200 RDRAM only has 4.8 GB/sec of bandwidth, not even as much as dual channel PC2700 DDR. I have a hard time believing that quad channel RDRAM will really be much of a competitor - the performance may be there, but the price will be high.