7.2Gbps XDR™ Memory System Uses 40% Less Power Than GDDR5 System

Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS), one of the world's premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed memory architectures, today showcased a silicon demonstration of a complete XDR™ memory system running at data rates up to 7.2Gbps with superior power efficiency. This silicon demonstration consists of Elpida’s recently-announced 1Gb XDR DRAM device and an XIO memory controller transmitting realistic data patterns. The XIO memory controller is up to 3.5 times more power efficient than a GDDR5 controller, and the total memory system can provide up to two times more bandwidth than GDDR5 at equivalent power. In addition, the XIO memory controller demonstrated bi-modal operation with support for both XDR DRAM as well as next-generation XDR2 DRAM.

“Future graphics and multi-core processors require significantly higher memory performance under extremely challenging power and thermal constraints,” said Martin Scott, senior vice president of Research and Technology Development at Rambus. “This technology demonstration highlights the outstanding power efficiency of the XDR and XDR2 memory architectures at performance levels from 3.2 to 7.2Gbps with scalability to well over 10Gbps.”

This silicon demonstration, shown at Denali MemCon 2009 in San Jose, is the first implementation supporting the XDR memory architecture roadmap incorporating innovations developed as part of Rambus’ Terabyte Bandwidth Initiative.