Introduction to DDR-2: The DDR Memory Replacement

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PCStats have thrown up an introduction to DDR-2 memory! Here's byte.

Spring is here and things are happening in the computer world. Already there are several technologies waiting for their promised turn in the spotlight, such as PCI-Express, the BTX form factor, and Intel's next set of chipsets for the Pentium 4. To these you can add DDR-2, an evolutionary upgrade to the current memory standard, DDR-SDRAM.

DDR2 is in fact already here. Companies including Micron, Crucial, Kingston and Corsair have already begun shipping DDR2 memory modules, though there are no desktop applications for it as yet. In this article, PCstats will look at the features and specifications of DDR2 memory, and take a sneak peek at some of its future applications, like the upcoming Intel i915P 'Alderwood' and i925X 'Grantsdale' chipsets.

What is DDR2? Well, it's a new memory standard, as defined by JEDEC (Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council), whose members include many of the major computer memory and chipset manufacturers. JESD 79-2A to be exact. DDR2 picks up where DDR memory currently stops, at 400MHz.

While you might have seen reviews of recent video cards with DDR2 memory, the memory used in these cards is actually a separate type developed specifically for the video card market, and slightly different to the 'desktop' DDR2 memory we are now exploring.

Introduction to DDR-2: The DDR Memory Replacement