Samsung Electronics Solidifies Server Memory Market Leadership with 8GB Product Offering

(Auszug aus der Pressemitteilung)

Seoul, Korea, December 8, 2005 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced that it has solidified its leadership position in the server memory market with a new 8GB product offering. Following the introduction of its 8GB Registered Dual In-line Memory Module (R-DIMM) in October, Samsung has now increased the density of its Fully Buffered Dual In-line Memory Module product line-up (FB-DIMM) to include 8GBs by adopting 80 nanometer 2Gb DDR for high-speed servers. This represents a significant leap forward in advanced server memory architecture.

OEMs that use Samsung’s high-density memory can increase the amount of installed memory and keep slots in reserve for future upgrades. Samsung memory such as the new 8GB FB-DIMM is ideal for space-constrained applications in blade and 1U servers.

The FB-DIMM architecture overcomes the previous limitation of two-to-four module capacity per channel. A FB-DIMM system’s DRAM module content can be increased to as many as eight modules without reducing the speed. The new system can also process an increased amount of data at the same time with the advanced memory buffer (AMB) chip connecting each module in the system point to point. As a result, the server market demand for high density DRAMs is expected to increase significantly.

With Samsung’s high-density memory modules, designers can take full advantage of increased memory support in the latest server operating system to maximize performance. In addition, Samsung is offering next-generation memory solutions such as the 8GB FB-DIMM to allow servers to benefit from ultimate memory density and bandwidth.

Samsung’s complete product portfolio includes all variations of DRAM memory from DDR to DDR2, and R-DIMMs to FB-DIMMs with densities ranging from 512MB all the way to 8GBs.

The FB-DIMM standard has been adopted by JEDEC, providing designers a choice between R-DIMM and FB-DIMM for next generation DRAM and system design. It is designed to add an AMB chip to the existing DRAM module, enabling the DRAM within the module to communicate with the system through this AMB chip.

Market research firm, Dataquest, has forecasted that the worldwide server DRAM market will have an expected market size of 34.1Bln megabytes in 2006.

Reference Data

• FB-DIMM
  • DRAM module designed to support the high capacity/ high speed memory specifications for next-generation servers
  • The existing Server architecture reduces the number of memory slots per channel from four to two in order to apply the memory bus structure to a high speed environment.
  • To overcome these limitations, FB-DIMM technology enables high speed and high capacity by embedding a buffer chip with a serial link function into a DRAM module where it acts as a mediator between the DRAM and the Host (memory controller)
    (DRAM and the Host don’t communicate directly, but through a buffer)

  • The newly developed 8 gigabyte FB-DIMM is structured as 2Gb DDR2-533/667
  • Data transmission speed per line is 4.2~5.3Gbps
    • 4GB FB-DIMM has 32 one-gigabit DDR2,
    • 8GB FB-DIMM has 32 two-gigabit DDR2 embedded
• RDIMM (Registered Dual In-line Memory Module)
  • Memory module with a resistor for control signal, which is a DRAM module mainly used for servers and workstations.
  • 36 1Gb DDRs are embedded in 4GB RDIMM