Samsung accelerates GDDR4 graphics memory prototypes

San Jose (CA) - The next generation of graphics memory is beginning to take shape. Samsung tunes its GDDR4 memory prototypes while Rambus still hopes that its XDR memory will graphics chip companies. Samsung today announced a new version of GDDR4, which matches the bandwidth of XDR.

Samsung's claims that its new GDDR4 chip is the world's fastest graphics memory. The 512 Mb device is manufactured in 80 nm technology, comes with 32 input/output pins, each of which can transfer data at up to 3.2 Gb/sec. The total bandwidth is indicated to be 12.8 GB/s, which is not only significantly faster than the prototype the company announced in October of last year, but also matches the performance of Rambus' XDR memory.

Samsung representatives told TG Daily in an interview last year, that they believe that GDDR4 will be able to surpass XDR's performance in certain scenarios, such as 4-channel XDR. The higher the pin count, the better GDDR4's competitive position. On lower pin-count designs, Samsung conceded, XDR will provide a "much higher" performance.

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