Posted on Thursday, August 30 2007 @ 2:02 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
German memory maker Qimonda today unveiled new 1 gigabit GDDR3 memory chips and unveiled their plans for GDDR5 memory production:
Qimonda adds a third Graphics RAM product, a 1Gb GDDR3, to its portfolio which includes 256Mb and 512Mb densities. With the extension to higher densities, Qimonda supports the trend to increasing frame buffers in graphics applications. The 1Gb device is ideally suited for notebook applications where the combination of high density and low granularity is essential. Additionally all three GDDR3 densities have been upgraded to higher I/O performance. The 256Mb and 1Gb devices are available now with data rates up to 1GHz, the 512Mb component with data rates up to 1.2GHz.
Qimonda has supplied GDDR3 memory products since the inception of this graphics I/O standard. According to Mercury Research, GDDR3 is the number one graphics memory standard in graphics cards covering 90% of this market in 2007. The GDDR3 is also the leading graphics memory standard in game consoles where it is used in all three of the current generation consoles.
Over the coming years - starting in 2008 – GDDR3 will be step by step succeeded by GDDR5, first in enthusiast and performance graphics applications. According to Mercury Research for graphics cards, the GDDR5 will gain 7% of the GDDR market in 2008 and increase to 44% in 2009. GDDR5 is ideally suited to succeed GDDR3 in next generation game consoles as well. Qimonda is well prepared to support this upcoming I/O transition in the graphics market by planning to sample first GDDR5 devices by the end of calendar year 2007.
