Dec 21, 2010

Elpida shows the world a working 30nm process

4GB DDR3 SO-DIMMS are about to hit prime time

Much to chagrin of graphics chip Etch-a-Sketcher’s everywhere, Elpida is rolling out its new DRAM chips on a 30nm process.  Sampling of certain 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM modules has already begun, and large-scale availability of these minified silicon marvels is expected in Q1 2011.  Benefits of this process enhancement are good for everybody as chips will be smaller, cheaper, larger, and faster and consume less power to boot.
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Dec 2, 2010

Rambus lawyers bored… decide to sue the world

Vein in JHH’s head sets new protrusion record

In the spirit of the season, Rambus Inc. is giving out another round of subpoenas to all of its friends in the tech industry.  Most interesting among the defendants perhaps is nVidia, who only months ago signed a licensing agreement with Rambus to end an ITC blockade of its products, (virtually their whole portfolio), which infringed on Rambus’s patents.  Round 2, or 3, or 400ish… Ding!
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Dec 2, 2010

IBM says “FU” to electrons, “Shalom!” to photons in chip design

Multi-core chips to see the light

If IBM has its way, QPI and HyperTransport are about to look about as fast as your mom’s 56K modem.  It seems that copper interconnects are simply not good enough anymore, and IBM researchers have developed a way to incorporate nano-scale CMOS optical devices onto the same slab of silicon your old-and-busted electron based transistors are fabbed on.  This allows chips to use pulses of light to communicate with each other rather than electrical signals to achieve some mind boggling bandwidth numbers.
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Oct 6, 2010

Sandy Bridge Xeon model numbers explained

More letter and number combinations to remember

WE FIGURED SOME of you might be interested in knowing what Intel has planned for its next generation of Sandy Bridge Xeon processors when it comes to the model numbers and we’re afraid we have bad news; it’s gotten even more complex. If you read our piece detailing some of Intel’s new Xeon processors based on Sandy Bridge, then you’ll know that Intel has changed its numbering scheme once again and the Xeon’s now start their model name with an E and then it gets trickier from there on in.
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