An ad hoc group of companies backing the PC133 device and module specification is scheduled to meet in San Jose, Calif. on Tuesday (March 9) to discuss options. David Pulling, vice president of marketing at Reliance Computer Corp. (San Jose) said "it started out as monthly gatherings at our company, but now the attendance has grown to the point that we are going to move the venue to an outside location." About 120 representatives are expected to attend the meeting.

Pulling said easing the technology into the personal computer space is where much of the group's attention is shifting.

Hitachi Ltd. recently announced a full-line of devices and modules that support the PC133 specification, joining Samsung Electronics and an expanding list of DRAM and module vendors.

In Taiwan, Via Technologies Inc. — which has 10.5 percent of the worldwide core logic market compared with Intel's 71 percent — is leading the fight for 133-MHz SDRAM as a viable memory alternative. Several weeks ago, Via announced a cooperative effort to develop a PC133 memory specification. Aimed at less-expensive desktops than the Rambus-enabled models, the Via effort enjoys the support of a growing number of suppliers, including Micron Technology, NEC and Samsung.

Some memory manufacturers, however, question whether the the high cost of shifting to the Rambus technology can be justified, particularly if system OEMs avoid using the 600-MHz Rambus "speed bin." Too many Rambus parts are not able to hit the full 800-MHz specification, opponents point out, and DRAM manufacturers see no ready market for the slower Rambus parts, which would deliver little or no performance gain over the 133-MHz SDRAMs.

'Smooth transition'

Wen-chi Chen, president of Via, said his company and its partners are putting in place "the necessary engineering and marketing resources to ensure a smooth transition from the current 100-MHz standard. Most, if not all, memory suppliers already have SDRAM devices capable of running at 133 MHz. So the only major thing holding up the move to the higher speed is the existence of an industry-wide standard."

Intel filled that role in the PC66 and PC100 generation, but has steadfastly refused to shift attention from Rambus, which has the potential of doubling memory bandwidth. At the recent Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, Calif., Intel fellow Peter MacWilliams was asked repeatedly about support for PC133. "All I can tell you is that at this time the PC133 specification is not on the Intel road map," MacWilliams said.

Without Intel's leadership, the PC133 organizational job falls to the Jedec standards organization, with support from the ad hoc group. Jedec, the international memory device/module standards group, has already developed a PC133 registered DIMM specification, positioned for servers and workstations.

The group's job now centers on a PC133 specification for the PC industry. "The alternative to a registered solution is an unbuffered one," said Dean Hays, director of marketing for Via. "The registers reduce the number of loads the memory module presents to the system bus, so that large numbers of DIMMs can be supported for workstations. In PCs you can get away with two or three DIMMs to give you all the memory you need in a system, so you can use unbuffered DIMMs. That way you don't pay the one-clock penalty, and you don't have the registers on the DIMMs, so the DIMMs are less expensive."

— Additional reporting by David Lammers.