Intel heads DRAM consortium

The skyrocketing cost of developing future generations of DRAM memory chips has prompted Intel to team up with the world's top-five DRAM producers to jointly develop technology to manufacture advanced new 1 and 4 gigabit DRAM chips that will enter the market in volume around 2003.

The agreement is supported by Hyundai, Samsung, Micron, Siemens, and NEC. Together, the companies control more than 60 per cent of the world’s DRAM market. "Under the terms of the agreement, the developers will work together and with industry participants to develop the architecture, electrical and physical design, and related infrastructure for this advanced DRAM technology," a joint statement said.

Perhaps most significant is the participation of Intel, which headed the effort to form the joint development consortium. Intel’s microprocessors drive innovation in the computer industry, but until now there has not been an effort to coordinate the development of two of a computer’s most vital components, the CPU and the memory. "Intel's role will be that they provide us with the application guidelines, their application expertise and the process or requirements for the future," said Farhad Tabrizi, vice president of Hyundai Electronics, now the world's largest DRAM maker in terms of production capacity. "DRAM companies have always been working together to define the next generation.

But this time, Intel positively wants to be one of the partners in this effort," said Chip makers, of course will benefit tremendously from the cost efficiencies achieved by pooling the human and financial resources needed to develop next-generation DRAM production. Intel too, stands to benefit from the advances in DRAM production.

Traditionally, the DRAM market has been the technology driver in the chip market. Since the DRAM recession started in 1995, however, that has shifted toward companies like Intel, as cash-starved DRAM producers were unable to invest in new technology at the pace they had been for much of the past 30 years. The availability of new DRAM chips has fallen one generation behind schedule due, mostly to the recession. With 16 megabit chips dominating the market in 1995/96, 256MB DRAM should be the main memory used today, according to Moore’s Law. Next-generation 1-gigabit chips should just now be entering the market. But the market has gotten stuck on 64 megabit DRAMs with some 256 megabit chips entering the market. Mass deployment of 1 gigabit DRAMs is not expected until around 2003.

"We joined the group to secure next-generation memory technology while maintaining a price competitiveness in the market after the year 2003, said Samsung Electronics spokesman James Chung. Added Tabrizi, "From the beginning, DRAM's been a commodity," We've been developing the same product and each company can differentiate based on the cost and the time to market and their different versions."