Although JEDEC deliberations are confidential, sources from the standards body said the quarterly meeting this month heard presentations for a proposed graphics version of its basic DDR-II standard for PC main memory.

Graphics card makers were pushing for a fast track adoption by the end of the year of the DDR-II specification tailored to their specific needs. However the JEDEC sources believed this was overly ambitious and any DDR-II graphics version won't be finalized until early next year.

ATI Technology and Nvidia Corp. are expected to introduce graphics cards with DDR-II memory chips even before a new JEDEC standard is approved. Since graphics card memory is point-to-point mounted directly on the board, vendors can validate chips and work out interfaces themselves. The JEDEC graphics standard would be an added benefit by eliminating any of the small proprietary twists memory suppliers now try to add to their DDR-II chips to lock in customers.