X-bit labs

OCZ Technology Shrinks DDR2 Latencies.

Category: Memory

by Anton Shilov

[ 10/20/2004 | 11:38 PM ]

As reported, OCZ Technology, a leading maker of memory modules, announced its new DDR2 products with enhanced efficiency thanks to more aggressive latency settings and the company’s proprietary Enhanced Bandwidth technology aimed to optimize latencies in order to maximize performance.

OCZ DDR2 PC2-4200 Platinum Enhanced Bandwidth Revision 2 memory modules are rated to function at 533MHz clock-speed and CL3 2-2-8 latency settings, even more aggressive than some sources close to the company suggested earlier this month. The products also boast with Enhanced Bandwidth technology for higher efficiency of data transfer and OCZ’s Extended Voltage Protection feature that allows modules to handle voltages up to 2.2V±5% and still be covered by the company’s lifetime warranty.

The new products from OCZ require 2.0V memory voltage, which is up 0.2V from default DDR2 memory voltage of 1.8V. While fewer mainboards allow 2.2V voltage for DDR2 products, the majority support 2.0V option and will be able to handle OCZ DDR2 PC2-4200 Platinum Enhanced Bandwidth Revision 2.

Enhanced Bandwidth (EB) technology is a set of means of increasing memory bandwidth through the optimization of memory latencies for the best possible interaction between the system memory and memory controller. Through thorough analysis of memory traffic and benchmark results under various operating conditions as defined by different memory latency settings in the CMOS setup of the BIOS, OCZ has pinpointed the bottlenecks relevant for performance. Some conventional wisdom regarding some memory latencies were also found to no longer hold true. Using those findings, OCZ redesigned its memory products to be optimized for delivering the highest possible bandwidth to any computer system.

OCZ’ Enhanced Bandwidth (EB) technology challenges conventional wisdom that implicates increased CAS latency as the main factor causing reduced effective bandwidth. OCZ engineers have shown that by reducing the latency cycles associated with the precharge-to-activate delay and the RAS-to-CAS delay along with the use of the Variable Early Read Command feature of DDR/DDR2, higher effective data bandwidth is possible.

Later during the year OCZ Technology is expected to release DDR2 modules at 667MHz with shrunk latencies in addition to high-speed DDR2 products at 733MHz and 800MHz.

The new DDR2 PC2-4200 Platinum Edition Enhanced Bandwidth rev.2 will be available as 512MB and 1GB memory modules and as 1GB and 2GB dual-channel optimized kits.