1998: At the Top

The following half a year - from June 1998 to January 1999 - became a real golden age of DR DRAM. Praise, optimistic forecasts and all that. Intel started testing memory chips and modules. Dell and Compaq announced that they were to ship PCs with DR DRAM the beginning of 1999. That is, the key point was reached, the technology was demanded by end-buyers. Toshiba forecast that DR DRAM would have 50% of the memory market by 2001.

A few months later, in October, the long-time Intel's foe, AMD, announced the licensing of the interface to be used in K7 chipsets in 1999. The company's vice-president said that it was a required OEM choice. But at the same time, AMD didn't want to tie K7's future with that memory type. After that announcement the Rambus' vice-president stated that this made DR DRAM the world memory standard. By that time, such giants as IBM and Compaq had entered the list of licensees.

A month later, at Comdex Fall'98, Intel proudly demonstrated a working PC with DR DRAM. However, the application running was an ordinary game called "Forsaken", as there were no programs requiring the increased bandwidth. But, there were problems with the latencies. Although, Rambus acknowledged the problem, they nevertheless claimed that it was solved and the wait period between the clock cycles was 10ns in DR DRAM, which was faster than in any available or planned technology.

The contract-bound Intel, which also was strategically interested in the success of the new technology, supported Rambus at its best and stimulated the memory makers financially. Micron received $500 million, Samsung - $100 million, negotiations with NEC and Toshiba were in progress. Rambus promised the launch of DR DRAM mass production in the first half of 1999, so that the arrival of i820 in the second half would be immediately followed by mass production of i820 based computers.

These were the last days on the Olympus. The hail of problems could wipe out a much stronger technology. All the time there had been an aggressive anti-campaign of VIA-headed group of companies that put their stake on PC133 SDRAM. And against this background there were permanent delays of the i820 launch, huge problems with valid DR DRAM chips output, and no certainty with most large manufacturers if they want to produce the new memory at all. I think you hardly remember S-RIMM, for instance, one of Intel's suggestions how to reduce anticipated DR DRAM chip shortages. It's a RIMM module with the power converter to 3.3V, which allowed using PC100 SDRAM chips on the PCB.

Well, the starting-gun fired and all rushed to the long-waited finish. Module makers were amassing production volumes: "The demand is sure to be at the end of the year. We don't know how high it will be, but want to be ready". They invested money in module testers trying to overcome the competitors. Connector and frequency generator makers were all getting ready for the June start. Graphics chips and graphics cards makers were planning to roll out their new AGP 4x products after the June launch of i820. All were investing money in production keeping the month of June in mind. Rambus' stocks reached their maximum: $109-15/16.