Qimonda Memory has started to mass produce Rambus-developed XDR DRAM to Sony, which will use the chips in the Sony PlayStation 3 game console. It is interesting to note that it took Sony and Qimonda about eight months to finalize and validate the chips.

“We are very proud to have started the volume production of our XDR product for PS3. This is a further milestone reflecting our product diversification strategy and demonstrating our leading position in the specialty memory market. We are prepared to support all our customers with XDR DRAM in various applications,” said Robert Feurle, vice president of DRAM business unit of Qimonda AG.

Qimonda started to ship first samples of the 512Mb XDR DRAM in January 2008. Sony PlayStation 3 uses 256MB of 3.20GHz XDR memory.

“Qimonda’s leadership and commitment to the XDR memory architecture expands the supply for this advanced memory solution for consumer and computing applications,” said Sharon Holt, senior vice president of worldwide sales, licensing and marketing at Rambus. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with Qimonda on future XDR memory solutions for high-volume applications demanding breakthrough performance.”

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. The XDR memory architecture features a number of advanced technologies built on patented Rambus innovations that include low-voltage, low-power differential Rambus signaling level (DRSL), octal data rate (ODR) technology that transfers eight bits of data each clock cycle, FlexPhase circuit technology for precise on-chip alignment of data with clock and dynamic-point-to-point (DPP) for both enhanced signal integrity and scalability.

Tags: Rambus, XDR, Sony, Playstation 3