Micron Technology, the world’s second-largest DRAM maker, has delivered the industry’s first double data rate SDRAM (GDDR3) components to ATI Technologies and Nvidia, the company said.

GDDR3, which is fabricated on Micron’s 0.11-micron process, is the fastest memory device available in the market today, providing the highest performance in both per-pin bandwidth and aggregate bandwidth, Micron said.

The device runs at twice the speed at half the power of current solutions, the company said. The technology can provide an aggregate bandwidth of 6.4GB/s per device, achieved with a 1.6GB/s per pin data rate

“Speed and power are two critical elements that can make or break high-speed graphic designs,” said Terry Lee, executive director of Advanced Technology and Strategic Marketing for Micron Computing and Consumer Group.

The applications that first use GDDR3 will be such areas as high-end graphics, gaming and high-speed networking. The industry will soon see migration into other high-speed point-to-point applications such as HDTVs and set-top boxes (STBs).

Joe Marci, director of technology at ATI Technologies, said that ATI has worked closely with Micron to define and develop GDDR3 as part of an industry-wide initiative. The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association is currently pursuing standardization of DDR3.

Nvidia expects strong performance gains from GDDR3 that will raise the performance bar of next-generation PC graphics, said Bryn Young, Nvidia director of memory marketing.

According to iSuppli, DRAM demand for PC graphics is expected to increase from 170 million (128Mbit-equivalent) die in 2002 to 285 million in 2003 and 546 million in 2005.

Micron is the world’s second-largest DRAM maker, with a global market share of 19.6% based on first-quarter 2003 revenues.

Source: Digitimes