Intel's upcoming 5100 chipset (San Clemente), part of the company's 2-way server platform Cranberry Lake, is expected to support RDIMM (registered DIMM) memory modules instead of FB-DIMM (fully buffered DIMM). With San Clemente returning to support RDIMM, plus the fact that Intel will launch a technology similar to AMD's on-CPU memory controller design in its Nehalem processor series, there is a possibility that Intel will stop pushing FB-DIMM, according to sources at server makers.
Currently, Sun Microsystems and Intel are the two server makers that still adopt FB-DIMM. Pricing of FB-DIMM remains higher than RDIMM, however, improvements in architecture mean that FB-DIMM does not affect server performance as much as it used to. If Intel drops support for FB-DIMM, Sun could be the only maker pushing the standard in the future, noted the sources.
Intel to stop pushing FB-DIMM for servers?
Posted on Thursday, July 05 2007 @ 0:17 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck