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The next new feature that is brought to the table by the i915 and i925X chipsets is DDR-II. DDR-II has been labeled by many as an “in-between” product, something that will offer no real benefit other than that it is scalable to higher clock speeds and lower temperatures than that of DDR-I. The new DDR-II modules operate at speeds of 400MHz, 533MHz, and 667MHz, at a VDIMM of 1.80V, much lower then the current 2.50V - 2.80V needed by first generation DDR-I products. The RAM chips are attached to the PCB via either Tiny BGA, or FBGA. By using Tiny BGA and FBGA packaging, the DDR-II modules have improved electrical performance as well as signaling speed. These modules will also feature a new DIMM socket with 240 pins versus the DDR-I connection with 184 pins.

DDR-II operates in a similar fashion to regular DDR-I in that it works with two data transfers per clock, hence the name double data rate. DDR-II has been designed specifically to address some of the issues with the DDR-I standard, as well as to add scaling capabilities for future microprocessors. DDR-II modules offer the capability to ship with higher densities ranging from 256MB - 2GB in comparison to 128MB - 1GB limitation for DDR-I.

The main advancements technologically with DDR-II center on the increased clock speeds. New features such as on-die termination allow for protection against signal bounce back. When a signal is sent along a wire, it will reach the end destination and without termination, the signal can bounce back through the wire possibly distorting an incoming or outgoing signal. By adding on-die termination, DDR-II can avoid these signal bounce back problems and a ground plane can be removed from the motherboard.

DDR-II also features reduced page sizes which reduces the power needed for activation. The Prefetch has also been increased from 2 to 4 which will provide reduced dependency on core speed, thereby increasing chip yields. Another factor that helps to increase yields, but not friends amongst the enthusiast community is the new CAS settings. DDR-II removes the ½ settings, like CAS 2.5, and replaces them with single integer settings. The CAS settings available for DDR-II are 3, 4, and 5. Currently, I have only seen modules shipping with a CAS latency of 4 though there are CL3 products in development.

Currently, DDR-II modules are available for purchase from a few of the top manufacturers such as Corsair Micro and Crucial. We’ve held discussions with several other RAM manufacturers, and all are getting their lines ready for manufacturing these new modules. DDR-II should become more available here in a few months, and it will also end up cheaper due to increased competition in the high performance arena. Currently, the CL3 modules are few and quite hard to come by, and needless to say carry a nice premium with them as well. Things should get real interesting when all of the high performance manufacturers can begin to ship out DDR-400 and DDR-533 modules with a CL3 rating. For now, we’re stuck with 4-4-4-12 for nearly all available products.

Intel’s “Wireless Connect Technology” will be our next topic of discussion. Sadly, this feature will not make way into the market until sometime during the third quarter of this year in the “W” branded ICH6 Southbridge chips. With their broad attack on the wireless market with Centrino, Intel has been steadily progressing towards heavy implementation of wireless capability in all of their core computer devices. We’ve seen further advancements in the laptop market, and now we’re starting to see wireless hubs being built into motherboards themselves.

In order to use this feature, when it becomes available, the user will need to work with an additional PCI WLAN radio card that will allow for wireless internet access. The built-in AP within the ICH6 Southbridge offers support for not only regular access to Wi-Fi solutions, but can also be configured for use as an access point by other Wi-Fi enabled systems within your household. Intel has implemented a short, four step setup in order to get the wireless connection up and running, and has also enabled simpler SSID and Security setups.