the bh-5/bh-6 legend

[Revv23]

not sure if anyone has said this, but your info on the manufacturing process is incorrect sayaa

No need to argue, just read up on their respective datasheets from Winbond.

From the Winbond 942516CH datasheet (for all speed grades from CH-75 to CH-5), the manufacturing process is described as 0.13um. It also says the 942516CH is sorted into 4 speed grades (-75,-7,-6,-5).

I would be very surprised if Winbond has lines that produce ram using 0.18um, 0.166um, 0.15um & 0.13um in an overlapped timeframe. For starters, it means massive investment wasted, as 0.166 & 0.15 are not necessary as Winbond is already migrating to 0.13 at the time when the BH series was in production. The incremental benefits offered by 0.166 & 0.15 over 0.18 does not justify the investment needed. Secondly, why would Winbond waste production cost in producing chips in a larger process when a smaller & more cost effective process is available (not to mention the cost in inventory controls)? Thirdly, what happens to those CH-5 that cannot function at 200MHz but can do so at 166MHz?? Do they junk them altogether?? They surely can't be called CH-6 if it's from a different process!!!

The words AH, BH, CH tells u which generaation it belongs, & the -75, -7, -6, -5 tells u it's speed. If u look at the ICs themselves, it's printed "BH-5" or "CH-5", BH5 or CH5 is just an abbreviation.

http://www.winbond.com.tw/c-winbondh...2_g_1_a.htm#06

Datasheet for CH series available at bottom of the page.

[owies]

Have also DH6 cahe on my 2 120GB Maxtors:


And BH6 on 40GB again Maxtor:

Anybody knows how to oc it ? On 40Gigs i find a pin who i gues is a clock input, but have no idea how to give them more freg without spec. chip. :/
pic of 35pin of BH6 cahe

[Revv23]

lol are you kidding?

why would you want to overclock your HDD cache?

just imagine what an unstable IC would cause, and im sure it wont improve performance.

[HARDCORECLOCKER]

Very nice review Sascha - made me just feel a bit sad remembering all the nice time with BH-5.

But I still use it and who'd put a cent on it that also on NF3 / NF4 it's an interesting opportunity to TCCD.

It take my breath away the day the message came on the ticker that Winbond stopped the production.

So all I can say is I wish everyone remebers this legendary RAM forever and I hope it will also be used in future systems.

[owies]

no, realy, it`s simple, I just can`t stay with non oced BH, And it may be a lot fun witch oc hdd cache. I know, performance, it`s most depend on hdd engine but i`m just curious
Btw, of coz, art is great :]

[owies]

Ok, it`s time to ask about stupid thing:
I`m just wondering what means that marks: W942508BH-5
can`t find nothing usefull on web, only some trash...

[largon]

Thread revival!!

This thread is linked from saaya's Sticky-thread "bh5 steppping database".
I thought it would be good to update it a bit:

Winbond DDR-SDRAM ICs:

W942508AH 	= 175nm * 	datasheet
W942508AH-6 	= 175nm *
W942508AH-7 	= 175nm *

W942508BH 	= 175nm ^ 	datasheet
W942508BH-4 	= 175nm *	(discontinued @ sample stage)
W942508BH-5 	= 175nm *
W942508BH-6 	= 175nm * 	datasheet (preliminary)

W942508CH 	= 130nm ^
W942508CH-5 	= 130nm * 	datasheet
W942508CH-6 	= 130nm * 

W942508DH 	= ???nm 	(in development, datasheet n/a)

* = DISCONTINUED
^ = UnTesTed-version available

note: AH- and BH-dies are of the same process size (see datasheets). This
leads to a conclusion: prefixes such as B in BH-5 or C in CH-5 do
not code process sizes, but are likely to discriminate chip generations.
Just like E and F are generation prefixes for Samsung K4H560838_-TCCD.

Winbond DRAM-IC markings: (incomplete)

 WAABBCCDE-F

 W - Winbond product

 AA - IC Description
	94 = DDR-SDRAM 
	98 = SDRAM

 BB - DRAM density
	25 = 256Mbit (32 megawords)
	12 = 128Mbit (16 megawords)
	64 = 64Mbit (8 megawords)
	16 = 16Mbit (2 megawords)

 CC - DRAM configuration
	04 = 4 bits/word
	08 = 8 bits/word
	16/G6 = 16 bits/word
	32/G2 = 32 bits/word

 D - IC generation (A/B/C/D/E) does not refer to process size

 E - Package type 
	H = TSOP II 50/54/66/86 
	B = VFBGA 54/60/90

-F - Speed grade in nanoseconds (-4/-5/-6/-7/-7.5)

[largon]

It seem the 1st post has some critical factual errors:

What is BH5?
--
later winbond released the bh-6, an improved ah-6 made in a smaller manufacturing process. those bh-6 chips are identical to bh5, bh5 are made in a yet smaller production process though--

W942508BH and W942508AH are of same process size.

both, bh5 and bh6 oc to amazing speeds of 300mhz and more with very high vdimm voltage (4v+).--

Screenshots of 300MHz 2-2-2-x do exist.
But more than 300MHz? No.

winbond originally planned to introduce bh-4 memory, an improved ch-5 memory that could run 2-2-2 and reach much higher speeds as it was also built in the smaller 130nm process --

BH-4 is only a higher bin BH-5. Nothing new actually.

i did some more research on the manufacturing process of the diferent chips, and found this:

AH-6 180nm
BH-6 166nm
CH-6 166nm
AH-5 (doesnt exist?)
BH-5 150nm
CH-5 130nm
BH-4 130nm

this explains why bh-5 and bh-6 perform almost the same, they are made in almost the same manufacturing process.

It seems only 1 (one) of those number is a fact...

Saaya, may I ask what was your source?

[ZX7891]

UTT manufacturing process is UTT-CH and BH built on?

[eliminate]

I have the OCZ Gold Series RAM which is supposedly BH-5.

Would my RAM be able to reach 300 at 2-2-2 or do I have to relax my timings a little with these. The Mushkin RedLine RAM uses the exact same chips as the OCZ Gold.

[largon]

ZX7891,
There's 2 kinds of UTT:
1. CH-UTT = untested Winbond CH-die
2. BH-UTT = untested Winbond BH-die


eliminate,
Mushkin Redline is CH-UTT. Gold VX on the other hand is BH-UTT, like you said.

Here's a good way to identify Winbond chips:
If your sticks can't do tRFC 12 stable, they aren't BH-die.