Intel has always been the
leader in the computing industry when it comes to setting
standards.  Thanks to their chipsets supporting certain features,
they are the ones that standardized the AGP slot, and SDRAM
memory.  Intel has recently realized the power they hold over the
industry, and decided to combine forces with Rambus INC to produce a proprietary
type of DRAM that Intel wants to replace SDRAM.

It’s called Rambus DRAM. 
It works on a pretty basic principle.  The more data the CPU gets
from RAM, the better.  Rambus DRAM achieves just that, by
increasing the bandwidth from the DRAM to the CPU.  They do this
in two ways.  One way is by increasing the speed of the RAM, as
they do with the CPU, called clock multiplying.  They basically
multiply the front side bus by a certain number to achieve the speed
of the Rambus DRAM.

There is a problem when it
comes to Rambus.  When Intel increased the bandwidth, they also
decreased the latency, the speed at which the DRAM can get data from
it’s inner most depths, and working toward the CPU.  Think of the
data going two and from the CPU as a Interstate Highway.  With
SDRAM, there are only 4 lanes, but the speed limit is 100km/hr. 
With RAMBUS, there are 8 lanes, but the speed limit is only
50km/hr.  In effect, on the average, RAMBUS doesn’t help, nor
hurt, performance at all.  There wouldn’t be a problem with that,
but there is.  The price for RAMBUS DRAM is approximately five to
ten times more expensive than SDRAM.

Intel’s new chipsets, that
support their newer Pentium iii Processors only support RAMBUS. 
But, there is a solution out there that will make your old SDRAM look
and act like RAMBUS to the computer.  It is a daughter card that
fits into the RIMM (stick of RAMBUS) slot.  Because it’s a data conversion
card, and not just an interface conversion card, it will slow down performance. 
Mainly, because of the cost, RAMBUS is falling out of favor with a lot
of people, causing them to flock for a chipset that support’s Intel’s
newer processors, the Apollo Pro 133A.