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Intel backed RDRAM as the future of PC memory. It signed a major licensing deal with Rambus, built its flagship Pentium 4 platform around the technology, and pushed the industry towards a new and expensive memory standard.
But RDRAM came with a serious problem: price.
In 2000, a 256MB RDRAM kit for the Pentium 4 cost around $300, while the same capacity of conventional SDRAM could cost around $60. And despite its impressive theoretical bandwidth, RDRAM did not consistently deliver the real-world performance advantage consumers were paying for.
Then came the i820 chipset problems, a recall affecting approximately 1.13 million motherboards, and Intel's decision to support DDR memory with the i845 chipset in 2001.
This is the story of how RDRAM went from Intel's chosen future to a technology quietly abandoned by the company that had backed it. We explore Rambus, the Pentium 4, the expensive RIMM modules, the memory standards battle, and the legal disputes that continued long after RDRAM disappeared from mainstream PCs.
RDRAM wasn't simply a bad engineering idea. Its serial memory architecture continued in later technologies, including the XDR memory used in the PlayStation 3. But its attempt to replace an established, cheaper industry standard had failed.
**The best technology doesn't always win.**
But RDRAM came with a serious problem: price.
In 2000, a 256MB RDRAM kit for the Pentium 4 cost around $300, while the same capacity of conventional SDRAM could cost around $60. And despite its impressive theoretical bandwidth, RDRAM did not consistently deliver the real-world performance advantage consumers were paying for.
Then came the i820 chipset problems, a recall affecting approximately 1.13 million motherboards, and Intel's decision to support DDR memory with the i845 chipset in 2001.
This is the story of how RDRAM went from Intel's chosen future to a technology quietly abandoned by the company that had backed it. We explore Rambus, the Pentium 4, the expensive RIMM modules, the memory standards battle, and the legal disputes that continued long after RDRAM disappeared from mainstream PCs.
RDRAM wasn't simply a bad engineering idea. Its serial memory architecture continued in later technologies, including the XDR memory used in the PlayStation 3. But its attempt to replace an established, cheaper industry standard had failed.
**The best technology doesn't always win.**
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