Elpida’s DDR-II Memory Chips Have Passed Kingston’s Verification

by Anton Shilov
09/09/2003 | 08:57 AM

Elpida, whose DDR-II SDRAM memory chips and module prototypes were approved by Intel earlier this year (see this news-story), today said its memory modules had passed verification procedures at Kingston Technology. Elpida is the first company to receive positive acknowledgement of its DDR-II memory devices from Intel and a memory manufacturer.

Elpida Memory is currently sampling 512Mb DDR-II chips following the guidelines and standards provided by JEDEC for the next-generation memory for computers and other electronic devices. Elpida is also developing 256Mb DDR-II DRAMs. The new DRAM chips available for memory module makers’ validation may be clocked at 400 and 533MHz with 3-3-3 and 4-4-4 latency settings, according to PC2-3200 and PC2-4200 standards. The products are packaged using 64- or 84-ball FBGA packages and are rated at 1.8V.

Since Elpida is making the DDR-II chips using 0.11 micron fabrication process, we may expect other memory companies to utilize the same technology for their DDR-II devices. Even though, there is no direct correlation between the manufacturing process and memory speeds, faster memory products are cheaper to produce using more advanced technology.

Kingston expects to start sampling DDR-II development memory modules to leading chipset and mainboard manufacturers by the end of 2003. In this case the company will be in a position to receive all necessary certifications and start DDR-II modules mass production by the time DDR-II supporting platforms are available in the market in the second quarter 2004. There is no information whose chips will be used in Kingston’s first DDR-II products, but I may suggest Infineon (who has a special agreement with Kingston) and Elpida.