Elpida Memory, a maker of dynamic random access memory (XDR) from Japan and also one of a few supporters of Rambus-developed XDR memory, said Wednesday that it had begun sampling of 512Mb XDR memory chips produced using 90nm process technology. The company said the demand for XDR was great and that thinner production technology would allow higher yields.

“The XDR architecture offers specific advantages for digital consumer applications, including extraordinarily high bandwidth per pin. Digital consumer applications represent the fastest growing segment of the market for Elpida Memory, and now that we are producing these devices on our 90nm process, we expect to produce higher yield in response to the great demand,” said Yoshitaka Kinoshita, executive officer for the digital consumer division of Elpida Memory.

Elpida’s 512Mb XDR DRAM devices are organized as 4M words x 16-bits x 8 banks and operate at 4.0GHz, providing bandwidth of 8GB/s per device. Even though similar devices were available already a year ago, 90nm production greatly improves abilities of Elpida to supply such chips in mass quantities.

XDR DRAM can operate at 3.20GHz to 6.40GHz clock-speeds, providing industry leading bandwidth per pin, which is a benefit for networking and consumer applications.

Numerous leading consumer electronics companies, such as Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba said they would adopt Rambus’ XDR memory for their devices, including Sony’s PlayStation 3 console and Panasonic’s digital TV-sets. Certain networking companies are also interested in XDR.