3D DRAM Spec Published 114
Lucas123 writes "The three largest memory makers announced the final specifications for three-dimensional DRAM, which is aimed at increasing performance for networking and high performance computing markets. Micron, Samsung and Hynix are leading the technology development efforts backed by the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (HMC). The Hybrid Memory Cube will stack multiple volatile memory dies on top of a DRAM controller. The result is a DRAM chip that has an aggregate bandwidth of 160GB/s, 15 times more throughput as standard DRAMs, while also reducing power by 70%. 'Basically, the beauty of it is that it gets rid of all the issues that were keeping DDR3 and DDR4 from going as fast as they could,' said Jim Handy, director of research firm Objective Analysis. The first versions of the Hybrid Memory Cube, due out in the second half of 2013, will deliver 2GB and 4GB of memory."
Still waiting... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:nothing new here (Score:5, Interesting)
I was working at SGI at the time, late 1991. The cheapest way to buy expansion memory was to buy Indigo's and throw out the rest of the computer. SGI was just feeling the first tickles of the commoditization of computer hardware, and was looking for ways to make their components unique (and keep them expensive.)
Re:And for faster performance (Score:4, Interesting)
HMC does not need to sit on top of a CPU. HMC is just a way to package a lot of memory into a smaller space and use fewer pins to talk to it. In fact, because of the smaller number of traces, you are likely to be able to put the HMC closer to the CPU than is currently possible. Also, since you are wiggling fewer wires, the I/O power will go down. Currently, one RAM channel can have two DIMMs in it, so the drivers have to be beefy enough to handle that posibility. Since HMC is based on serdes, it is a point-to-point link that can be lower power.
I am sure that at speed ramps up that HMC will have its own heat problems, but sharing heat with the CPU is not one of them.
Re:And for faster performance (Score:4, Interesting)
To be fair, if somebody tried to sell something as locked down as the iPad is during the period when IBM first released the PS/2, it would have also flopped. The market has changed a lot since the 1980's. People who seriously upgrade their desktop are a rather small fraction of the total market for programmable things with CPU's.