IBM Mainframe

Hynix Semiconductor has announced the availability of the world's first 512MB GDDR4 DRAM, the industry's fastest and highest-density graphics memory.

GDDR is an ultra-high speed graphics DRAM that processes moving pictures and graphic data in personal computers and game consoles. The fourth-generation graphics memory GDDR4, which improves data processing speed by close to two times than that of GDDR3, is ideal for 64-bit computer operating systems that manage vast amounts of data at once.

GDDR3 memory is currently used on high-end and mainstream graphics cards. Both nVidia and ATI are using GDDR3 with their latest graphics processors. The memory evolves from GDDR2, but sports some pretty important differences.

Firstly, GDDR3 makes use of a single-ended, unidirectional strobe that separates the reads and writes. GDDR2, by contrast, uses differential bi-directional strobes. Secondly, GDDR3 utilises a 'pseudo-open drain' interface technique that is based on voltage rather than current.

The GDDR4 memory builds upon the GDDR3 standard, just like the latter evolved from the GDDR2 specification. Therefore, it is possible to expect the technology to utilise the point-to-point nature. There are no revolutions, it is said now, but special tweaks to bolster clock-speeds of DRAMs used on graphics cards brought by GDDR4.

About Hynix: Hynix Semiconductor (HSI) of Icheon, Korea, is one of the world's top memory semiconductor supplier offering Dynamic Random Access Memory chips (DRAMs), Static Random Access Memory chips (SRAMs) and Flash memory chips to a wide range of established international customers.