Kingston launches DDR2

[Force Flow]

Kingston® Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the release of DDR2 memory modules. Shipping immediately in limited quantities, Kingstonâ offers 400- and 533- MHz DDR2 Registered DIMMs, Unbuffered DIMMs and SODIMMs, in capacities up to 1 GB, to support the next-generation computer platforms launching in 2004.

http://www.kingston.com/press/2004/memory/03b.asp

Images:
http://hardocp.com/image.html?image=...JfMV8xX2wuanBn
http://hardocp.com/image.html?image=...JfMV8yX2wuanBn
http://hardocp.com/image.html?image=...JfMV8zX2wuanBn
http://hardocp.com/image.html?image=...JfMV80X2wuanBn
http://hardocp.com/image.html?image=...JfMV81X2wuanBn

You will notice differences immediately. Such as the Ball Grid Array chips as opposed to what we normally see TSOPs being used for (i.e., the chips do not have the connecting wires out the sides anymore but are rather connected via solder points on the back of the chip that cannot be seen after attached). Also you will notice that the notch is in a different place. DDR and DDR2 are NOT cross compatible even though the sticks are very similar to the naked eye. Looking closer, with the connecting points compared, you will see that the DDR2 has many more than DDR1. DDR2 will bring with it faster speeds and lower voltages.

[OMG!]

Very I just wonder what the prices on these things are gonna be running?

[Panama Red]

Gotta love technology! By the end of 2004, all the machines we've all just built will be considered "old" technology. New form factors, new memory, new cpu's and new motherboards. And since voltages and power consumption are changing, that will mean new psu's, new video cards, new sound cards, etc,etc. Kinda like driving a stake in the ground and saying "here's the mark where everything changes"!!

[Joeberg]

Perhaps the word for this is the starting of a new "era"
Although the advances in technology are exciting, its also quite a bit sad thinking that the machines that are currently still being built/sold that costed so much money are going to be labeled "obsolete". I hope this won't render them useles...

[glc]

The old machines will hardly be useless - even today a classic Pentium still serves very well for a general use machine. It's only multimedia and games that's driving the technology. I do neither, and this P3-800 is a very snappy machine, it should do all I need for another few years.

[Force Flow]

My machine is used as a multimedia center. It's used for just about everything. 2D & 3D graphics, gaming, and sound & video editing. I've been ending up adding upgrades every few months

[kram 2.0]

Agreed. Of course, I have a very old Win95 desktop that I am doing very little with - but its just there, I guess. In this www, a certain standard is needed, contrary to popular belief, on surfing the web. I'm convinced that my Win95 with...you guessed right - a big whooping number of....8!!! MB I believe SDRAM will not run MSIE 5 stably, let alone MSIE 6.

Thanks,
kram

[glc]

In my experience, no version of IE higher than 3 is stable on Win95 - and you can't even install IE6 on 95 anyway. Use an alternative browser, Opera without Java will run on a 486.

[Floppyman]

Machines becoming useless and obsolete? Think *nix and you'll always have use for them..

[Cricket]

Originally posted by Joeberg the machines that are currently still being built/sold that costed so much money are going to be labeled "obsolete". I hope this won't render them useles...

That's exactly the kind of thinking the makers of name brand computers want the general public to have. Joe Shmoe buys a brand new computer, uses it for a short time, reads that there is new technology coming with the latest computers and thinks he needs to buy a new computer because his computer is "old and obsolete" already even though it's more than capable of doing everything he does with it. So he donates his computer to a local school or charity, buys a new computer and the cycle starts all over again.

Oh well, at least it keeps the economy going.

Cricket

[glc]

My computer is almost all parts that customers don't want any more. I probably only have about $175 cash in the whole box.