Intel Pentium 4 gets SDRAM
  07/29/2001 10:45:53 AM MDT Albuquerque, Nm
  By Dustin D. Brand; Owner AMO

The Intel Pentium 4 gets a price drop, and a new memory chipset.   Just in time for the Windows XP Release on October 25th, 2001, Intel has dropped the price of the Pentium 4 along with it's new SDRAM memory Chipset.

  In just a few days and in August, the arrival of Intel's 845 chipset, code-named Brookdale will introduce a new Memory Chipset capable of using SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory).

  SDRAM has long been the PC Memory Standard vs. the slightly faster and more expensive Rambus DRAM memory which is currently the only memory type usable with Pentium 4's. Realizing that SDRAM is much cheaper, is getting faster, and offers comparable performance to RDRAM in DDR-SDRAM versions, Intel releases it's new 845 chipset.

  The less expensive 845 chipset will help Intel immediately lower the cost of Pentium 4 chips for PC manufacturers such as Dell, Compaq, HP, and others. Rambus memory will continue to be an option for Pentium 4 systems, according to Intel.

  SDRAM, which is also known as PC100 and PC133 memory (which run at 100MHz and 133MHz respectively), is widely considered to be slow and outdated compared to newer DDR-SDRAM technology. Intel competitor Advanced Micro Devices already ships DDR memory with many of its PC and server chipsets.

  Intel will take advantage of DDR-SDRAM in the first quarter of 2002. The Microsoft XBOX which uses a Pentium III (FCPGA) and AMD's HyperTransport implements 256MBit DDR-SDRAM. AMD, Intels biggest competitor already ships many of their chips based on the DDR memory.

  Intel's choice to use RAMBUS DRAM for it's launch of the Pentium 4 has drawn considerable criticism due to the RDRAM's high price and less than significant price/performance advantage over the DDR. Given AMD's new HyperTransport technology, Intel may need to find a substitute, as of now this isn't RDRAM and could possibly be DDR-SDRAM.

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