OCZ Technology, a top maker of advance memory modules and other products for computer enthusiasts, announced this week its first DDR3 products. The initial memory modules featuring the new memory type are fully compliant with standards defined by JEDEC and are not pre-overclocked by the manufacturer. Still, early adopters are going to find them interesting.

The first breed of OCZ Technology products – that accommodate standard JEDEC specifications – are offered among Gold Series memory kits in PC3-8500 (1066MHz) and PC3-10666 (1333MHz) speed grades with CL7 7-7-21 and CL9 9-9-26 latency settings, respectively. It is interesting to note that OCZ increase voltage of its memory modules to 1.6V, which is 0.1V higher than the value recommended by JEDEC.

“For the past few years, we have highly anticipated DDR3, since it is everything DDR2 should have been from the very beginning,” commented Dr. Michael Schuette, vice president of technology development at OCZ Technology. “Being part of the task group defining the serial presence detect and extended feature set of DDR3 has further increased our commitment to the third generation of double data rate memory and we are ready to break some new performance records.”

DDR3 memory is designed to increase performance and lower power consumption of DDR2 memory utilized today. The new memory standard features relatively low operating voltage of 1.5V, 8-bit pre-fetch architecture (compared to 4-bit pre-fetch buffer with DDR2), on-die termination (ODT), power-saving modes known as PASR (partial array self refresh) and ASR (auto self refresh) and some other capabilities.

The DDR3 memory will be able to operate at up to 1600MHz, but in the exchange for enhanced latencies of CAS (column address strobe) 5 to 10 (compared to CAS 3-6 on DDR2). Even though CL7 latency setting is considerably higher compared to CL5 of DDR2 at the same frequency, improved pre-fetch and other technical advantages of DDR3 versus DDR2 may help the new memory type to be as fast or even faster compared to the previous-gen one.

OCZ Gold DDR3 modules will be initially available in 2x512MB and 2x1024MB dual channel kits. Prices are yet unknown.