RDRAM for AMD boards???

[E3Art]

is RDRAM for intel boards only or can an AMD system use it?

 

[XBoxLPU]

Intel only at the moment..

But AMD does not need RDRAM anyway..

 

[ScrapSilicon]

interesting...now that RDRAM is about the same pricing as DDRAM..............(wonder if AMD's architecture precludes it..?? )

 

[Rand]

<< interesting...now that RDRAM is about the same pricing as DDRAM..............(wonder if AMD's architecture precludes it..?? ) >>



They could certainly use it, but I can't see it being beneficial. PC2100 DDR SDRAM provides sufficient bandwidth for the current 133MHz DDR FSB, and lower latency then RDRAM could provide.

It would be little different then the PIII with RDRAM in which it proved to be a slower solution then PC133. Except in AMD's case it would be PC2100 DDR rather then PC133 SDRAM.

 

[AA0]

I don't think that there is any limitation on AMD chips to use RD RAM, but there is no point. If a chipset was made it would not perform higher than DDR. Reason is that RD has a high latency, and since DDR can already fulfill the athlons bus needs at a lower latency, the extra ram speed is completely wasted, but you just introduce higher latency.

 

[Rand]

Perhaps if the RDRAM was clocked at 600MHz (PC1200 RDRAM) the latency would be reduced enough to be comparable to PC2100 DDR SDRAM... but then we've still got more bandwidth then we need, and unnecessarily added cost over PC2100.

FWIW, AMD DOES have a license from RAMBUS to design and utilize RDRAM based technology in correlation with the K7 processor line.

 

[Bovinicus]

The nForce already provides Twinbank architecture anyway. This provides a theoretical 4.2GB/s when used in combination with PC2100 DDR SDRAM. That is an extra 1GB/s over dual RDRAM stick setups. It has lower latency as well. There is no need from RDRAM.