Samsung brightens outlook for Dimm

Samsung Electronics today unveiled samples of its next-generation memory module for servers and workstations, a fully buffered dual in-line memory module (FB Dimm) based on DDR2 technology.

According to the electronics giant, the FB Dimm "sharply boosts" the memory density and bandwidth of registered Dimms and improves data processing.

An Advanced Memory Buffer chip has been added to each memory module to enable the use of high-speed and low-speed interfaces.

The buffer can generate speeds from 3.2Gbps to 4.8Gbps. The firm said that the FB Dimm can attain a maximum speed of 4.8Gbps that is double the speed of a DDR2-400 registered Dimm, when utilizing DDR2-800 components.

Until now, the access rate per channel for memory slots decreased as the memory bus speed increased, limiting density build-up, Samsung said.

The FB Dimm eliminates this "stub-bus" channel bottleneck by using point-to-point links that enable up to eight multiple memory modules to be connected serially to a given channel.

This will allow a capacity of up to 8GB per channel or a total of up to 32GB when incorporating 1GB FB Dimms.