Aside from the hyperbolic server platforms, the trend at IDF Spring 2002 showed miniaturization, smaller concept cases on the outside, compact blade servers and all of these developments call for smaller components as well. Aside from footprint considerations, there is a strong demand for shorter traces and one of the main hogs in this respect is the memory interface with its fanning interconnects. Most likely we will see some SO-DIMMs and Micro DIMMs in the near future, however, there are some other developments going on as well. One of the concepts is to stack as many chips as necessary to fill the bus width vertically, separated by integrated heatspreaders and to combine the traces to generate a surface mount BGA or PGA interface.

Such a DIMM on a block was shown privately as a joint effort from 3D-Plus and Enhanced Memory Systems.

The "Cube"

This small cube contains no less than eight 256 Mbit (32Mx8) memory chips for a total density of 2 Gbit and is a full drop-in replacment for a 256 Mbyte DIMM at about 1/10 of the footprint and allowing ultrashort traces to the controller. The beautée of the concept is not only in the size but also in the manufacturing technology which does not even require soldering. With the appropriate socket, this form factor could become the DIMM of the future, especially for high-speed interfaces and embedded systems.

   

The "Cube", bottom view showing the 144 pin BGA pinout as well as another shot to put the Cube's dimensions in perspective

ATi And nVidia

ATi and nVidia were both present on the showfloor but also had separate suites in the nearby hotels. The material disclosed there is still under NDA but we will have more shortly.

Conclusion

Aside from the exhibits, IDF offers classes and keynotes to bring everybody up to date on the state of the industry. A Pentium4 running at 4 GHz aircooled, multithreading, network processors and design considerations qualify as standard repertoire of the last IDF. Politics and marketing are present in subdued form but the best description of the overall atmosphere was the open acknowledgement of AMD's Hammer Demo by Intel. Everybody knows that the entire industry is in the same boat and that the efforts of a single company to end the depression will remain fruitless if the rest of the industry doesn't thrive as well. In other words, let's call it a truce for today and postpone beating up each other until we all do a bit better again. I guess, in this sense, everybody is waiting for the games to start again.

One other trend at Intel not yet mentioned is an increased committment to the overclockers community which will take its first hesitant steps by opening up BIOS settings for the users to do whatever tweaks they want to do. This radical turnaround from the hitherto known Intel retail board configurations will start by offering optional "Tweaker's BIOS" revisions on the Intel website in the months to come. O tempora, o mores ... .

Once again, I tip my hat to Craig Barrett who had the foresight to expand Intel into a platform company rather than trying to focus on one particular component, that is the CPU business. If that had been the case, Intel would not be what they are today. There are other companies coming on very strong in their own field but Intel must still be considered the dominant driving force in the PC industry at this point and it all falls back on one person: Craig Barrett.

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