SAN JOSE -- During the Platform Conference here, executives from Kentron Technologies Inc. claimed that the company's new memory technology will be out in the market by year's end--or about a quarter faster than analysts originally expected.
Last month, Kentron announced a line of modules based on its so-called Quad Band Memory (QBM) technology--an emerging scheme that promises to double the speeds of double-data-rate (DDR) SDRAM memory for PCs. Wilmington, Del.-based Kentron says its QBM technology makes use of an FET-based switching technology that boosts the speeds of DDR SDRAMs.
To propel the technology in the market, Kentron plans to develop QBM-based memory modules running at 3.2-gigabytes-per-second of bandwidth (400-MHz data rate) and 4.2-gigabytes-per-second of bandwidth (533-MHz data rate). At the time, the company said the modules will ship in he first quarter of 2002 (see Dec. 6 story ).
Now, it appears that the company is accelerating its QBM technology in the market. Systems manufacturers will ship products based on QBM "by the end of this year," declared Robert Goodman, chief executive of Kentron.
Goodman believes that the company will obtain support for its QBM architecture from the memory and PC motherboard makers. The company expects QBM-based memories and boards to appear by the second and third quarter of this year, he said.
The company also claims it does not compete against DDR SDRAM, but rather against Rambus' Inc. RDRAM memory technology. "We don't compete against DDR," he said. "We are more of a competitor to Rambus," he told SBN. Officials from Rambus declined to comment on the company's technology.
"We are a DDR-based solution," he added. "With QBM, we believe we can offer DDR-II performance today."
The Kentron executive was referring to a next-generation, DDR SDRAM memory technology called DDR-II, which is expected to hit the market in 2004 or 2005.
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