Our Hardware Museum: Mystery #13

Intel cerfities Micron’s DDR2 SDRAM chips of three densities

Tornado introduces its new 802.11g Wireless LAN series

Memorex unveils 52X CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive

Our Hardware Museum: Mystery #13

This time riddles are more difficult, but also more interesting. You must recognize from these PCB fragments their respective makers, card and GPU model, the amount of memory and GPU/memory clock speeds.

This contest´s deadline is February 5, 14:20.

Please mail your answers to Andrew Vorobiev.

Mystery #13, Question #1

Mystery #13, Question #2

Mystery #13, Question #3

Intel cerfities Micron’s DDR2 SDRAM chips of three densities

Micron Technology informed that its DDR2-400 and DDR2-533 SDRAM chips of three different densities were certified by Intel (according to Intel, this is the first company to receive the certificate for 1Gbit DDR2-400 chips).This list includes 256Mbit and 512Mbit DDR2-533 SDRAM and 1Gbit DDR2-400 SDRAM chips.

These components will be used in registered and unbuffered 128MB to 4GB DIMM modules that, in particular, will be installed into Grantsdale-based chipsets.

A short historical digression: 256Mbit DDR2 SDRAM chips were announced in mid-October. By that time Intel certified DDR2-400 chips with x4 and x8 architectures alongside DDR2-533 chips with x8 architectures. In 2004 DDR2 400 modules are to be primarily used in server platforms, while DDR2-533 ones — in desktop systems.

0.11µm 1Gbit DDR2-400 and DDR2-533 samples were introduced by the company late in October with the following features:

• VDD = 1.8V, VDDQ = 1.8V
• I/O = SSTL_18
• 400 Mb/s/pin and 533 Mb/s/pin data rates
• 3,200 MB/s and 4,300 MB/s for 64-bit systems
• 4n data prefetch
• 4 banks for 256Mbit and 512Mbit densities
• 8 banks for 1Gbit and 2Gbit densities
• Burst length of 4 or 8
• WRITE latency = READ latency — 1 clock
• Differential data strobe option
• Duplicate RDQS data strobe option
• READ latency: 3, 4, and 5
• Posted CAS# additive latency: 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 clocks
• On-die termination (ODT)
• Off-chip driver (OCD) output impedance calibration option
• FBGA packaging

Early in January Micron launched volume production of its certified chips. This definitely provided some advantages to the company on the background of rivals.

The complete table of manufacturers and their certified DDR2-400/533 SDRAM chips is below (NOTE: The table is actual only at the moment of this news publication!)

Tornado introduces its new 802.11g Wireless LAN series

Tornado (Allied Data Technologies) introduced a new supplement to its product range: the Tornado 802.11g Wireless LAN series designed for broadband users interested in implementing wireless networking in their SOHO environment.

Tornado 242 integrates a Wireless 802.11g Access Point, a Broadband Router (cable or ADSL), a 4-port Ethernet switch, a firewall and a Parallel Print Server.

Tornado 211G is a wireless network PC Card that connects your notebook to an 802.11g network.

Tornado 212G is a wireless network PCI Card that connects your desktop PC to an 802.11g network.

Both Tornado 840 and 841 integrate Wireless 802.11g Access Points, 4-port Ethernet switches, firewalls and USB Print Servers. The difference is that 840 model features ADSL Annex A Router, while the 841 model has ADSL Annex B / U-R2 Router.

The Tornado Wireless LAN products support IEEE 802.11g (up to 54 Mbps), IEEE 802.11b (max. 11 Mbps) and 802.11g+ standards. And with the proprietary Turbo mode, the novelties can speed up to 108 Mbps.

Memorex unveils 52X CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive

Memorex unveiled its new CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo supporting 52x CD-R write, 32x CD-RW rewrite, 16x DVD read.

Memorex´s new drive is expected in North American retail stores in February with MSRP of $80. By the way, company´s previous drive (48x/24x/16x; on the photo) went on sale last year with MSRP of $100.

The novelty´s bundle includes NeroBurning ROM 5.5, InCD 4, PowerDVD XP 4, Medi@Show software.

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