DDR3 Memory

We haven’t even accustomed ourselves with DDR2 and there are already rumors about the appearance of DDR3 memory modules. Samsung has already presented a prototype of a DDR3 chip in February.

Infineon has made statements according to which we should expect the appearance of DDR3 modules at the end of 2006. These first chips should be considered test samples, the mass production and commercializing being scheduled for 2007.

Infineon is known as an vanguard producer, the company starting DDR2 chip production in March 2003, almost an year and a half before Intel released their i915P/G and i925X chipsets that support this type of memory. Samsung and Elpida launched their own DDR2 modules in the middle of 2002.

If the memory market maintains the current pace for the new DDR3 technology, the year 2007 seems the plausible, even probable, estimation for the commercializing of these modules.

Samsung announced in the middle of February a 512 MB DDR3 chip which operates at 1066 MHz. It will have a power consumption with 40% smaller than current DDR2 modules and will be built around the 80 nanometer technology. At that time, Samsung said that the first DDR3 modules will be sold in 2006 and that until 2009, this memory will dominate the international market of DRAM memory.

Intel announces that by the end of 2007, it will offer support for this type of memory. Only then, users will consider DDR3 as an alternative to present memory solutions.