BOISE, Idaho -- Micron Technology Inc. today (June 11) claims it has delivered the industry's first devices, based on a new graphics double-data-rate SDRAM technology called GDDR-III.

Micron has shipped the GDDR-III devices to ATI Technologies Inc. and Nvidia Corp., according to the Boise-based memory company.

GDDR-III is one of two next-generation memory architectures vying for dominance in the graphics market. And the market for next-generation DRAM in graphics applications is dividing into two camps, with Nvidia championing a version known as GDDR-II and rival ATI backing a follow-on architecture known as GDDR-III (see Dec. 17 story ).

It appears that Nvidia is backing GDDR-III, a high-speed, point-to-point technology for high-end PC graphics and gaming platforms. The technology can provide an aggregate bandwidth of 6.4-gigabytes-per-second per device.

Fabricated on Micron's leading-edge 0.11mm process technology, GDDR3 provides the highest performance in both per-pin and aggregate bandwidth, said Terry Lee, executive director of advanced technology and strategic marketing for Micron's Computing and Consumer Group.

“GDDR3 operates at 50 percent higher data rates while consuming approximately half the power of graphics DDR2,” Lee said in a statement. “With these speed and power advantages, we believe the first applications to adopt GDDR3 will be high-end graphics, gaming markets and high-speed networking.”

Source : SiliconStrategies