Christoph Hammerschmidt
EE Times Europe
(03/23/2007 11:37)
MUNICH, Germany — In order to outmaneuver its large competitor Samsung, memory chip vendor Qimonda plans to skip the GDDR4 graphics memory technology generation in favor of GDDR5. With the move, the company seeks to address the high end of the market.
Based on market studies from iSuppli, Qimonda presently holds the number two position in the graphics DRAM market after top dog Samsung. Within the past two years, the former Infineon memory business has tripled its market share from 10 to 30 percent, claimed Qimonda vice president Graphics DRAM, Robert Feurle, in an interview with EE Times Europe. According to the manager, Qimonda's rise went at the expense of Hynix and, at a lesser extend, of Samsung. At the same time, the company is focusing on discrete graphics systems for game consoles, desktop PCs and notebooks. "Integrated graphics systems with unified memory architecture is not our business", explained Feurle - despite the fact that this type of memory dominates the desktop and notebook PC market.
Based on market research from Mercury, Feurle expects the market for discrete desktop graphics systems to shrink from 76 million units in 2007 to 70 million units in 2011. At the same time, the market for comparable notebook graphics systems will grow from 26 million units to 34 million units. The DRAM content of average graphics 3D systems will remain almost constant in terms of value, growing insignificantly from $31 to $32 during this period, according to Mercury.
In the game console market, Qimonda expects a volume of 30 million units for 2007, based on Citigroup research. Due to the cyclic nature of this market, the researchers predict sales to shrink to 25 million units in 2011 and then to rise again, with new models expected for 2012.
While GDDR3 presently holds a share of about 90 percent of the high end PC graphics market, in 2011 the mainstream memory technology in this segment will be GDDR5 - not GDDR4, said Feurle. "GDDR4 will remain a niche technology", Feurle said. Indeed, so far only Samsung and Hynix are the only vendors who have announced GDDR4 activities. "Most customers will move from GDDR3 directly to GDDR5."
Feurle's observation is in line with market research. For 2011, Mercury research expects GDDR5 to capture 90 percent of the high-end graphics DRAM market, which then will feature a volume of $1.49 billion for PC applications alone. Peaking already in 2008, GDDR4 will never get more than 25 percent share in the high end.
While GDDR4 offers several improvements in terms of performance and feature set over GDDR3, the technology so far failed to make good on its promise to enable low-power systems. "The power reduction was far less than expected", said Feurle. "It is not really a selling feature presently".
GDDR5 now is intended to offer the missing low-power capability, along with tripling the performance of today's 800 MHz GDDR3 chips. In addition, it will offer features that enable more robust system designs, Feurle said.
The company presently is pressing ahead with the JEDEC standardization process and expects the standard to be finalized by summer 2007. "There is no stumbling block anymore in the standard process, the chip designers can already start to work", Feurle said. Besides being used in desktop and notebook systems, GDDR5 will be suited especially well for game consoles. "The technology is specified for cost optimized systems", Feurle explained. But are PCs not cost optimized system? There is a different approach in the business model for both system types, Feurle said. "While in a PC, the manufacturers tend to insert more memory at relatively constant costs into a system generation over its product lifetime, game console manufacturers tend to maintain memory capacity and drive down the price", the manager explained. Thus, memory manufacturers have to focus on higher densities as well as on lowering prices. Qimonda's option for the game console market is underpinned by orders from all major console manufacturers. The company hitherto has publicly communicated orders from Microsoft and Sony, but EE Times research proves that the company's memory chips are also under the hood of the Nintendo Wii. The company will sample first GDDR5 chips by year-end 2007. Volume production is scheduled for first quarter 2008.
EE Times Europe
(03/23/2007 11:37)
MUNICH, Germany — In order to outmaneuver its large competitor Samsung, memory chip vendor Qimonda plans to skip the GDDR4 graphics memory technology generation in favor of GDDR5. With the move, the company seeks to address the high end of the market.
Based on market studies from iSuppli, Qimonda presently holds the number two position in the graphics DRAM market after top dog Samsung. Within the past two years, the former Infineon memory business has tripled its market share from 10 to 30 percent, claimed Qimonda vice president Graphics DRAM, Robert Feurle, in an interview with EE Times Europe. According to the manager, Qimonda's rise went at the expense of Hynix and, at a lesser extend, of Samsung. At the same time, the company is focusing on discrete graphics systems for game consoles, desktop PCs and notebooks. "Integrated graphics systems with unified memory architecture is not our business", explained Feurle - despite the fact that this type of memory dominates the desktop and notebook PC market.
Based on market research from Mercury, Feurle expects the market for discrete desktop graphics systems to shrink from 76 million units in 2007 to 70 million units in 2011. At the same time, the market for comparable notebook graphics systems will grow from 26 million units to 34 million units. The DRAM content of average graphics 3D systems will remain almost constant in terms of value, growing insignificantly from $31 to $32 during this period, according to Mercury.
In the game console market, Qimonda expects a volume of 30 million units for 2007, based on Citigroup research. Due to the cyclic nature of this market, the researchers predict sales to shrink to 25 million units in 2011 and then to rise again, with new models expected for 2012.
While GDDR3 presently holds a share of about 90 percent of the high end PC graphics market, in 2011 the mainstream memory technology in this segment will be GDDR5 - not GDDR4, said Feurle. "GDDR4 will remain a niche technology", Feurle said. Indeed, so far only Samsung and Hynix are the only vendors who have announced GDDR4 activities. "Most customers will move from GDDR3 directly to GDDR5."
Feurle's observation is in line with market research. For 2011, Mercury research expects GDDR5 to capture 90 percent of the high-end graphics DRAM market, which then will feature a volume of $1.49 billion for PC applications alone. Peaking already in 2008, GDDR4 will never get more than 25 percent share in the high end.
While GDDR4 offers several improvements in terms of performance and feature set over GDDR3, the technology so far failed to make good on its promise to enable low-power systems. "The power reduction was far less than expected", said Feurle. "It is not really a selling feature presently".
GDDR5 now is intended to offer the missing low-power capability, along with tripling the performance of today's 800 MHz GDDR3 chips. In addition, it will offer features that enable more robust system designs, Feurle said.
The company presently is pressing ahead with the JEDEC standardization process and expects the standard to be finalized by summer 2007. "There is no stumbling block anymore in the standard process, the chip designers can already start to work", Feurle said. Besides being used in desktop and notebook systems, GDDR5 will be suited especially well for game consoles. "The technology is specified for cost optimized systems", Feurle explained. But are PCs not cost optimized system? There is a different approach in the business model for both system types, Feurle said. "While in a PC, the manufacturers tend to insert more memory at relatively constant costs into a system generation over its product lifetime, game console manufacturers tend to maintain memory capacity and drive down the price", the manager explained. Thus, memory manufacturers have to focus on higher densities as well as on lowering prices. Qimonda's option for the game console market is underpinned by orders from all major console manufacturers. The company hitherto has publicly communicated orders from Microsoft and Sony, but EE Times research proves that the company's memory chips are also under the hood of the Nintendo Wii. The company will sample first GDDR5 chips by year-end 2007. Volume production is scheduled for first quarter 2008.
