podcast length 19min

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DDR3 DRAMs have been waiting for a long while in the shadows for their time on center stage. The JEDEC spec was completed more than four years ago, and Samsung showed a working silicon DDR3 DRAM prototype in February 2005. But the gestation period for these most advanced DRAM products is long, and the road to market is tortuous, no matter how superior they may appear on paper or in their initial forms, compared to the current standard bearer. Much infrastructure has to be set up, early design kinks for the DRAMs and their systems have to be worked out, multiple financial considerations among the system and DRAM vendors’ operations have to be aligned. It is a time consuming task.

However, the embedded space is not as beholden to nearly as many preconditions in order to get going as the PC market is, since most of those systems are completely defined by the system maker, and not dependent on chipsets, standard bus frequencies, 'industry consensus', ‘DRAM price points’, what Intel and AMD are thinking and doing, and other such constraints. Embedded system designers can define their own systems, and can often utilize DDR3 DRAMs in more performance-oriented and cost-effective ways. Embedded system designs are using DDR3 DRAMs now, though they are only just beginning to appear in traditional PCs.

This 19-minute podcast captures an interview, featuring Denali’s Technical Marketing Director, Marc Greenberg and I as we discuss some of the similarities and differences between designing DDR3 DRAMs into PCs, compared with designs in the embedded space.