Kingston Reigns In RAM Technology

It took the launch of Intel&'s 900 series chipsets, coupled with its LGA775-based Pentium 4 processors, to see DDR2 at the desktop level, but Kingston is now full steam ahead with the technology filtering into the mobile market.

The ValueRAM DDR2 667MHz (PC2-6400) memory modules will support next-generation notebooks and are available in 256-Mbyte, 512-Mbyte and 1-Gbyte capacities.

DDR2 has many advantages over DDR1. For one, DDR2 requires less voltage to achieve clock speeds that are very similar. That correlates to low power consumption on the board and in the box.

DDR2 has on-chip termination that yields better EMI (electromagnetic interference) characteristics, which are naturally occurring phenomena when the electromagnetic field of one device disrupts, impedes or degrades the electromagnetic field of another device.

Many computer devices are susceptible to EMI because electromagnetic fields are a byproduct of passing electricity through a wire. While this is not the enormous problem it sounds like, it sometimes causes disruption at the system level.

Another characteristic about DDR2 is that when done right, it can be clocked significantly higher than DDR1 RAM.

With the good there is always some bad, and with DDR2 memory the bad is that it currently costs more than DDR1, however DDR2 prices recently have started to drop.

Kingston&'s prices for DDR2 SO-DIMM modules are $58 for 256-Mbyte modules; $87 for 512-Mbyte modules; and $165 for 1-Gbyte modules.