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At Rambus, we create cutting-edge semiconductor and IP products, providing industry-leading chips and silicon IP to make data faster and safer.

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Motherboard talks security and Rambus

Motherboard’s Michael Byrne recently covered a paper written by Rambus chief scientist Paul Kocher for Communications of the ACM. In the paper, Kocher observes that computer security issues have far exceeded the limits of the human brain. To illustrate his point, the chief scientist points to Ohio’s infamous Silver Bridge, which collapsed during rush hour in 1967.

“Instead of redundancy, the bridge used high-strength steel. The failure of a single eyebar was catastrophic. Today’s computing devices resemble the Silver Bridge, but are much more complicated,” Kocher explained. “They have billions of lines of code, logic gates, and other elements that must work perfectly. Otherwise, adversaries can compromise the system. The individual failure rates of many of these components are small, but aggregate complexity makes vulnerability statistically certain.”

As Bryne notes, Kocher views computer security as a scaling problem.

What if HAL 9000 had been lensless?

The fictional HAL 9000 is a sentient computer that made its infamous on-screen debut in Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the 1968 film directed by Stanley Kubrick, HAL is depicted in the form of multiple camera lenses containing a dot, which are scattered throughout the Discovery One spacecraft.

According to HAL’s Legacy: 2001’s Computer as Dream and Reality, edited by Rambus Fellow Dr. David G. Stork, HAL is capable of speech, speech recognition, facial recognition, natural language processing, lip reading, art appreciation, interpreting emotional behavior, automated reasoning and playing chess.

R+ DDR4 PHY developed on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 14nm LPP process

Rambus has confirmed the development of its R+ DDR4 PHY on the GLOBALFOUNDRIES 14nm LPP process.

“As part of a comprehensive suite of memory and SerDes interface offerings for networking and data center applications, we have achieved the first production-ready 3200 Mbps DDR4 PHY available on the power-performance optimized 14nm Low Power Plus (LPP) process,” said Luc Seraphin, senior VP and GM of the Rambus Memory and Interfaces Division.

Rambus Announces Silicon-proven R+ DDR4 PHY on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 14nm LPP Process for Networking and Data Center Applications

Production-ready PHY IP will address the high-performance needs of enterprise systems

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – July 26, 2016 – Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) today announced that it has developed an R+ DDR4 PHY on the GLOBALFOUNDRIES FX-14™ ASIC platform using the company’s most advanced 14nm Power Plus (LPP) process. As part of a comprehensive suite of memory and SerDes interface offerings for networking and data center applications, Rambus has achieved the first production-ready 3200 Mbps DDR4 PHY available on GLOBALFOUNDRIES power-performance optimized 14nm LPP process. The R+ DDR4 PHY is designed to meet the performance and capacity demands of the next wave of data center and networking markets.

“As we become more reliant on the cloud and the stresses placed on data centers continues to grow, the need for memory offerings that promise faster speeds and higher bandwidth has never been more important,” said Luc Seraphin, senior vice president and general manager of the Rambus Memory and Interfaces division. “Together with GLOBALFOUNDRIES, we have been able to develop the industry’s first DDR4 PHY on a 14nm LPP process running at 3200 Mbps and capable of achieving the performance requirements of next-generation systems.”

“GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ FX-14™ platform, based on our advanced 14nm LPP technology, is designed to support the memory intensive computing tasks in today’s most demanding enterprise applications,” said Kevin O’Buckley, vice president product development GLOBALFOUNDRIES. “At 3200 Mbps, the R+ DDR4/3 PHY delivers the maximum data rate supported by the standard enabling advanced functionality like simultaneous streaming of Ultra HD content. We look forward to continue collaborating with Rambus as we develop a fully-featured suite of memory products designed to ensure the best performance for today’s data centers.”

The Rambus R+ DDR4 PHY is DFI 4.0 compatible, providing easy integration, and enables customers to differentiate their offerings by providing industry-leading performance while maintaining full compatibility with industry standard DDR4, and DDR3/3L/3U interfaces. Designed for flexibility, the R+ DDR4 PHY delivers data rates from 800 to 3200 Mbps in multiple memory sub-system options including die down, DIMM, and 3DS. In addition, the PHY supports 16 – 72-bit interfaces, along with single and multi-rank configurations, allowing the end customer to optimize their design for performance, as well as both area and low power.

For more information on R+ DDR4 and our other memory PHYs, visit rambus.com/ddrnphys.

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About Rambus Memory and Interfaces Division (MID)

The Rambus Memory and Interfaces Division develops products and services that solve the power, performance, and capacity challenges of the mobile, connected device, and cloud computing markets. Rambus enhanced standards-compatible and custom memory and serial link solutions include chips, architectures, memory and chip-to-chip interfaces, DRAM, IP validation tools, and system and IC design services. Developed through our system-aware design methodology, Rambus products deliver improved time-to-market and first-time-right quality.

About Rambus Inc.

Rambus creates cutting-edge semiconductor and IP products, spanning memory and interfaces to security, smart sensors and lighting. Our chips, customizable IP cores, architecture licenses, software, tools, services, training and innovations improve the competitive advantage of our customers. We collaborate with the industry, partnering with leading ASIC and SoC designers, foundries, IP developers, EDA companies and validation labs. Our products are integrated into tens of billions of devices and systems, powering and securing diverse applications, including Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, consumer and media platforms. At Rambus, we are makers of better. For more information, visit rambus.com.

 

The growing demand for FPGAs in servers and data centers

Jeff Dorsch of Semiconductor Engineering recently noted that there are a number of distinct advantages and drawbacks to various compute engines available on the market today.

“[For example], CPUs offer high capacity at low latency. GPUs have the highest per-pin bandwidth. And FPGAs are designed to be very general,” writes Dorsch. “But each also has its limitations. CPUs require more integration at advanced process nodes, [while] GPUs are limited by the amount of memory that can be put on a chip.”

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