Rambus unveils its first R+ chips for server memory modules

Throughout its history, Rambus has received royalties from other makers of chips for its patents. However, on Monday the company introduced its own ICs designed to improve server-class memory modules. The company will sell the products to interested parties itself.

The first in a family of R+ chips, the RB26 is an enhanced, JEDEC-compliant memory module chipset designed to accelerate data-intensive applications, including real-time analytics, virtualization and in-memory computing, with increased speed, reliability and power-efficiency, according to Rambus. Actual chips will be made by a contract manufacturer.

“At Rambus, we have a rich history of innovation and expertise in high-speed memory interface design – the introduction of this chipset is a natural progression that enables us to deliver maximum value to the industry,” said Dr. Ron Black, president and chief executive officer at Rambus. “Expanding our offer beyond IP into chips with standards-based offerings that feature leading-edge performance and advanced functionality amplifies our growth strategy and furthers our engagement with the market.”

The RB26 DDR4 RDIMM and LRDIMM chipset allows memory module makers to build 128GB or 256GB memory modules that operate at 2666MHz – 2933MHz and are also very reliable and power efficient. The chipset is JEDEC compliant and is compatible with all microprocessors, including Intel Xeon.

The introduction of the R+ chipset indicates that Rambus is changing its business model and will offer its own products instead of charging DRAM makers for its IP.

RB26 is currently sampling to key potential customers and ecosystem partners. This chipset includes a roadmap with value-added features to support further improvements to system performance and reliability.

“Data centers and enterprise markets are under increased pressure to implement enhanced memory architectures that meet the capacity and bandwidth requirements to handle large amounts of complex data,” said Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights & Strategy. “Rambus’ deep expertise in advanced memory designs makes them the newcomer to watch in the server memory chipset market.”

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KitGuru Says: Improving performance and reliability of memory modules is a breakthrough. But will Rambus manage to persuade makers of memory modules to actually use its chips? Looks like right now the company has nothing to announce…

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