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New Group to Push DDR Memory Santa Clara, Calif.- Twenty semiconductor memory and ancillary suppliers formed Advanced Memory International Inc. (AMI2) last week to push alternatives to Direct Rambus. The new group will oversee and promote the adoption of new DRAM technologies like PC133, DDR and the emerging DDR-2. Supporters backing the new company include Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hyundai, IBM, Infineon, LG Semicon, Micron, Mitsubishi, Mosaid, NEC, Samsung, Toshiba, and Vanguard. Through a symbiotic relationship with standards-setter JEDEC, AMI2 will attempt to establish continuity from standards-setting through technology implementation and infrastructure development. Once PC133 adoption is completed, the company will shift its efforts toward accelerating Double Data-Rate (DDR) SDRAM adoption. A number of memory suppliers are already shipping or sampling the architecture. AMI2 is also actively involved in developing the JEDEC specification for future DDR enhancements ( DDR-2) aimed at the 4 gigabyte per second performance range. To incorporate, AMI2 took over the legal framework originally established for SLDRAM Inc., a defunct group that championed Synch Link memory. AMI2 President and Chief Executive Officer Desi Rhoden, who also serves as chairman of JEDEC and its RAM committee, dismisses the perception that AMI2 is an outgrowth of SLDRAM. "SLDRAM was formed to create a packet based DRAM, and it turns out that none of the industry OEMS wanted one. It was a solution created for a problem that did not exist," Rhoden said. AMI2 borrowed the bylaws and organizational structure of SLDRAM, according to Rhoden, to speed its formation and avoid paying superfluous lawyers' fees. AMI2 traces its development to an ad hoc group of memory makers, module vendors and controller suppliers. |