Apparently, some mainboard companies still stake on RDRAM, as The Inquirer revealed today. If you remember, ASUSTeK was preparing a SiS R659-based mainboard together with SiS, but now looks like this camp will be joined by EPoX, a company mostly known for its Socket A mainboards.

SiS R659 core-logic is designed to support four-channel RDRAM PC1200. The R659 North Bridge is able to provide up to 9.60GB/s of memory bandwidth thanks to the four-channel memory controller with PC1200 RDRAM support. The chipset also includes architectural enhancements for higher performance through faster response time. In total SiS’ R659 supports up to 16GB of memory, a lot more compared to other desktop chipsets nowadays. Even the newly-announced Pentium 4 CPUs with 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus require just 6.4GB/s of bandwidth, so 9.60GB/s is too lot for 2003 CPUs. The R659 North Bridge will be coupled with the SiS964 I/O controller, which integrates 8 USB 2.0 ports and Serial ATA-150 features. According to reports, SiS implements 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus in its R659 now. Samples of the R659 are scheduled to come in the third quarter 2003.

EPoX and ASUSTeK are reportedly planning to offer their mainboards using this chipset in late Summer 2003. To tell you the truth, I hardly understand who is going to buy such solutions given that it will hardly be faster compared to Intel’s 875P “Canterwood” while still maintaining higher price because of higher RDRAM cost. It will not bring any benefits because of higher memory bandwidth for future-generation processors because they will utilise other Quad Pumped Bus and other Socket type.

With only two mainboard makers producing RDRAM-supporting mainboards, memory module vendors may quickly phase-out their RIMM products leaving some parts of the world without RDRAM modules at all. Mainboard makers will either need to ensure that there are RIMMs in their target markets or supply such memory together with the mainboards what will make the combos quite expensive. Mainboard makers definitely understand all these objections against the plans and eventually may cancel their R659 projects.

Of course, only time will reveal the truth.