What's VCM (Virtual Channel Memory) and is it really better then PC-133 stuff?!?!?

[lsakhvoruk]

Hi! Well I have been checking out hardware prices recently and came across VCM. The statements I saw about it said that users see up to ~50% increase in performance over standard memory. This VCM stuff is supposed to be only for VIA chipsets and since I have an ABIT KT7-RAID motherboard I am curious about this stuff. If anyone knows anything about this type of memory please post your knowledge or direct me to a site where I can find the info myself! Thanks a lot. Leo.

[wedor]

The only ones I've seen claiming big numbers are those selling it, I haven't seen many reviews backing up those claims. If I can find a review I'll post a link.

[Cirerrek]

The numbers I have seen from people who don't manufacture the VCM memory is a 5-15% increase in memory performance. The exorbitant price is usually not worth the performance increase. I think SharkyExtreme.com mentions the VCM in their High End PC Buyer's Guide.

[lsakhvoruk]

Well, I haven't found anything concrete about this type of memory but it seems as though this memory was developed specifically for the via chipset. As you may remember VIA could not come anywhere close to the mighty 440BX in terms of memory bandwidth when the first Athlon chipset (I believe the Apollo Pro) came out. So my guess is that this VCM stuff was developed to somehow alliviate the problem. Anyhow, since apparently VCM is getting no support from anywhere now, its a dead end technology. However its really not that expensive now ~$100 for 128MB. Anywho, here are my 3/4 of cent. Leo (Correct me on anything I concluded wrong) Thanks!

[Toaster]

The VIA chipsets still have trouble exceeding memory bandwidth of the BX chipset. From what I learned, this new memory technology was to circumvent this shortfall.
This memory acts much like BEDO memory that was produced for P-Pro systems some years back. It is supposedly to act as though a type of interleaving was going on when a double sided module was being used or pairs of single sided modules. Performance gains were minimal (5-8%) typical and I would assume this memory type to die a quick death when PC150 memory gets going.
PC166 memory is in limited production from Micron and Hitachi. The memory speeds of these types of memory is said to be 6.5 NS. Most PC133 memory is about the 7.4 NS range and faster.