DDR2 is a new memory standard approved by JEDEC (Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council) that comprises a great number of DIMM and chipset manufacturers. The standard's eariler versions were published back in March 2003, but it wasn't until January 2004 that it gained the ultimate approval and got the name of DDR 2 SDRAM SPECIFICATION, JESD 79-2, revision A (JESD79-2A). DDR2 is based on a well-known and time-proved DDR (Double Data Rate) technology. We can even say that it begins where the latter ends. In other words, first DDR2's will work at the frequencies that are the limit for this generation of DDR-400 (PC3200 standard, 200-MHz clock frequency), while its further variants will leave the latter even farther behind. The first DDR2 generation is already in production. It is manufactured by such vendors as Samsung, Infineon, Micron, Crucial, Kingston, Corsair, and is represented by DDR2-400 and DDR2-533, that work at 200 and 266 MHz, respectively. The next generation will include DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 modules, although they are not much expected to appear in sale by the end of the year.

It should be mentioned that the DDR2 memory itself appeared quite a while ago (we certainly mean memory on graphic cards). However, this variant of DDR2 (called GDDR2) is, in fact, a special type of memory. It is developed specifically for the graphic card market and has some differences from the desktop variant which is the subject of our today's review.