AMD launches Radeon RAMs

[DKT27]

AMD has quietly released a new range of memory products, recycling in the process the Radeon brand which moves from graphics processing units to memory modules.

According to a product page here, AMD Radeon for systems are "ideally" suited for the company's APU and CPU solutions and have been "tested to the highest industry standards on AMD platforms".

Three different categories are currently on offer, roughly matching AMD's product categorisation: Entertainment, Ultra Pro and Enterprise. Oddly enough, the company is offering only 2GB modules with data rates at 1333.33MT/s and 1600MT/s, with 9-9-9 and 11-11-11 timings for the first two product ranges respectively.

AMD has yet to provide more details for the Enterprise range; it is interesting to note that AMD also sells Radeon Memory for graphics cards and AIB partners, although unlike system memory, you won't be able to buy them through retailers.

It's very unlikely that the memory sold by AMD will behave differently when slotted in an Intel system; indeed we're not even sure that there's any particular advantage these parts will hold over bog standard ones. The modules have already gone on sale in Japan - according to Akiba PC Hotline - where they cost ¥1570 or £12.31 which is roughly 25 per cent more than what a comparable Corsair memory module costs in the UK.

AMD's move into memory brings up three questions; why is AMD even thinking about grabbing some market share in the ultra competitive consumer memory market? As Gareth Halfacree from Thinq posits, it might be because it wants to use unsold inventory and get rid of its excess capacity although with a depressed market, the margins will be wafer-thin.

Will this move prompt Intel to enter the memory market? Potentially as it will also allow Intel to move a step closer to being able to provide a true Intel PC (including wireless connectivity thanks to Infineon and operating system thanks to Meego).

Lastly, will AMD launch more Radeon-branded products? We're not sure because while memory is very close to AMD's core market (CPU, APU, GPU, Chipset), anything else would either dilute the brand or put the company in direct competition with some of its most important partners (e.g. motherboard makers).

View: Original Article

[nsane.forums]

AMD launches Radeon-branded RAM modules

AMD has quietly launched a new product line of Radeon-branded RAM PC modules for several segments, including high end PC gaming.

AMD already makes and sells PC desktop and notebook processors along with motherboards. It also makes graphics chips under its Radeon brand which it acquired when the company bought ATI several years ago. Now AMD has decided to quietly launch yet another product line. A page on AMD's web site shows that the company is now introducing a line of RAM DDR3 memory modules for the PC market. These new products will be released under the Radeon banner.

The web page indicates that AMD will release three types of RAM modules, but all of them will have 2 GB of RAM on board. One will be branded as "Entertainment", for more general purpose home and entertainment applications, with support for speeds of 1333Mbps. The second will be for "ULTRAPRO Gaming" with support for speeds of 1600Mbps. Finally there will be Radeon memory modules for enterprise PCs, but there's no word on the speeds as of yet.

While the AMD web site doesn't show a release date for any of these products, the Entertainment version appears to already be on sale in Japan. There's no word when or even if these Radeon memory modules will be put on sale here in the US. AMD recently started launching its Fusion line of processor chips that combine both a CPU and a GPU in one chip. Its next major PC desktop processor is code named Bulldozer and is scheduled to launch sometime later this fall. Earlier this week AMD indicated it would not be introducing a new processor specifically made for the smartphone market.

View: Original Article