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Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1276
AT News Update: AMD Sidelines DDR2 for 2004
by Kristopher Kubicki on March 25, 2004 4:04 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Although we have had some strong evidence that AMD will not adopt DDR2 soon, today we received official word that AMD will not adopt DDR2 in 2004, and certainly not well into 2005.
AMD's DDR2 philosophy revolves around "performance, price and availability"; that is, AMD will not implement DDR2 until all three of those criteria are suitable for entry. Our sources claim this is the same strategy AMD approached to memory when it chose DDR memory over Rambus several years ago.
Perhaps the most interesting statement in AMD's newest release was the two key points outlined for the actual deployment of DDR2:
AMD will support DDR2 when it makes sense
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When DDR2-667 is introduced and performance advances enough to
overcome the DDR2 latency penalty
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When the DDR2 price premium fades
Sadly, there were no sources to cite as to whether those two key points were mutually inclusive. Multiple sources confirm DDR2-667 deployment could be here as early as Q2'05.
Let us consider the significant negative performance issue with DDR2 for now; latency. If you had a chance to read our memory articles, as well as our DDR2 preview last week, you've seen that DDR2-400 and DDR1-400 have equivalent thorough put. Unfortunately for DDR2, we won't see timings better than 4-4-4 (while DDR1-400 can achieve 2-2-2 relatively easily). This could in fact become a blessing in disguise for AMD.
The onboard memory controller for Athlon 64 enhances performance more so than any other feature on the new chips (although, the 64-bit addressing is pretty nice too). Since each individual processor revision dictates the memory clock, AMD is free release its next generation A64 with a 533MHz memory bus if they wish. Intel, on the other hand, relies on upgrading the FSB clock on its CPUs and the memory controller in order to achieve a higher memory clock. DDR2 will be very easy for AMD and its partners to incorporate. AMD upgrades the memory controller on the processor, and the motherboard manufacturers replace the 184pin DDR1 DIMM with the 240pin DIMM needed for DDR2 - no new Northbridge.