The new part uses the company's 32-Mbit data bus to reach speeds of up to 300 MHz, combining a 2-Mbit x 32-Mbit configuration that the company claims can process 2.4 Gbytes of data per second.

"We have been focusing on both Rambus and DDR, and at the moment, we are the leader in both technologies. There has been a lot of talk on Rambus recently, but we are still focusing on DDR too," a Samsung spokeswoman said.

Aimed at the graphics cards market to support high-speed graphics and moving pictures, the move shows the company is determined to break its memory business out of the PC ghetto and into communications applications. Samsung still estimates that PC DRAM shipments will be 53 percent of its business, but the company said it plans to extend applications into notebook PC, WAN, LAN, Internet router and switching memory, and Level 3 cache memory for high-end servers.

Made using the company's 0.17 micron process and operating at 2.5 volts, the parts will be shipped in FBGAs. Samsung said it will begin full production of the new device in the third quarter of 2001. Details about sample shipping and pricing were not available.

The part is the second DDR SDRAM to attack the graphics market in recent weeks. At the end of last month, Hynix Semiconductor started volume production of its 4-Mbit x 16 double-data-rate SDRAM. Those devices, manufactured on a 0.18-micron process, also operate on a 2.5-V power supply and operate at 200, 233, 250, and 275 MHz.