Samsung Electronics today announced it had begun mass production of the industry’s first 1GB DDR-II Dual in-Line Memory Module (DIMM), which is based on 512Mb DDR-II components.

 The availability of a DDR-II memory solution in production volume, which features a 4-bit pre-fetch delivering twice the external bandwidth of DDR solution for the same internal frequency, will speed the industry’s transition from DDR. The 1.8V device features high-speed data transfer rate of 533MHz that can be extended to 667MHz for networks and special system environments. DDR-II SDRAM memory also implements off-chip driver calibration (OCD) to maintain optimum driver strength; on-die termination (ODT) to ensure optimum signal waveform; and posted CAS, a command control method to enhance bus efficiency.

Samsung first shipped engineering samples of a JEDEC standard compliant 512Mb DDR2 SDRAM to major chipset developers last May.

I wonder who needs DDR-II memory modules now? There are no platforms for this type of memory, while chipsets that are designed for such platforms are not yet on the stage when memory modules are tested for compatibility and so on. Maybe the company wants to stock its DDR-II memory products for a year and then flood the market with its modules in a couple of days to occupy the largest possible market share?