What Happened To RDRAM?

[Taggert_LOA]

I have A dell Dimension 8200 with 512 mb of RDRAM. I was Wondering what happened to RDRAM? all the new dell's seem to have DDR ram? did I advertantly get the wrong technology? is it being phased out like beta max? a failed technology. please somebody tell me what happened?

 

[o0RaidR0o]

No worries!

Read all about new rdram here: http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/12/25/hnxdr_1.html

 

[rik]

but as you have already figured out, "Dell" is no longer using RDRAM.

 

[enonemoose]

It's not just Dell not using RDRAM anymore. The newer Intel releases along with the newer chipsets are geared for DDR only. RDRAM had some good points but the bad ones really outweighed it and the price factor was one of them. The P4 3.2 "C" can work with the 533 FSB (RDRAM 1066) or the 800 FSB using DDR. Of course it's really designed to work with the DDR and that's where it will perform the best.

 

[LeeJend]

There are still MB being made to support RDRAM and I think Intel may have a new RDRAM chipset but RDRAM is essentially dead.
The liscencing fees were too high,

the stability over the high speeed serial interface was a nightmare,

and it just couldn't stay far enough ahead of DDR in performance to justify its price and quirkiness.

But don't worry the RAMBUS company is trying to force liscencing fees on DDR so it can become less competitive also.

 

[Nismo83]

guys.. i think i caught up with a info from a local pc mag stating that there will be a new version of RAM from RAMBUS.. that will be real fast.

ps: forgot the real name though.

 

[enonemoose]

Originally posted by Nismo83
guys.. i think i caught up with a info from a local pc mag stating that there will be a new version of RAM from RAMBUS.. that will be real fast.

ps: forgot the real name though.

The new form is XDR.

 

[ming]

They haven't mentioned anything about pricing yet, and until then I'm not even going to take any real interest in the new memory.
I bet it'll be just as expensive as its predecessor.

 

[enonemoose]

Originally posted by ming
They haven't mentioned anything about pricing yet, and until then I'm not even going to take any real interest in the new memory.
I bet it'll be just as expensive as its predecessor.

Agreed. At the speed that the memory will run at and Rambus' past history... It's not going to be cheap IMO.

 

[Zedric]

Originally posted by enonemoose
Agreed. At the speed that the memory will run at and Rambus' past history... It's not going to be cheap IMO.

Which means it will flop big time again.

Let's just hope they don't require 2 sticks this time. Imagine dual channel on those, 4 sticks.

 

[LeeJend]

Actually they never required 2 sticks. My old computer at work was RDRAM and only had one. With one stick a terminator strip was required.

We've had this thread before...

 

[Zedric]

Originally posted by LeeJend
Actually they never required 2 sticks. My old computer at work was RDRAM and only had one. With one stick a terminator strip was required.

Allright, my bad. But I'm guessing the terminator wasn't free either.

 

[ming]

Originally posted by Zedric
Allright, my bad. But I'm guessing the terminator wasn't free either.

LOL.

 

[LeeJend]

Free? Nothing is free. At the least they make you sit through a boring speech...

 

[delta4s]

Im stuck with 128 MB of RDRAM and I cant upgrade within my budget..

 

[Taggert_LOA]

sure you can go to pricewatch.com

 

[Taggert_LOA]

http://www.komusa.com/rambus.html

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

Only the 16bit version needs the so called second stick or if you prefere terminator or whatever you want to call it, I am sure he meant the same thing when he said second stick ..

 

[chastity]

Ok as far as the desktop market goes Rambus is dead for now it may make a come back who knows. Two reasons that it happened first was covered already which was the price not just the end user price either and the other was the fact that only 2 companys were making RDram sticks and everybody was crying about the price and the lack of choices regarding the chipsets so Intel made the ddr and sd ram baed chipsets which were cheaper both to make and for the ram and now has in the desktop area at least stop making chipsets that support RD ram but it may still be used in servers which is were it come from as I understand. The XDR sounds interesting yes but not sure what if any impact it will have though