Elpida 70nm samples are reaching RAM manufacturers.

[alexio]

I just had word from Tom, better known as Duonger around here, that Mushkin will get the Elpida 70nm DDR2 IC samples very soon. He told me it is possible that they have arrived already. It's very likely that other manufacturers of high-end RAM will receive the samples soon, and they might have already.

This is the news report from Elpida: http://www.elpida.com/en/news/2006/12-25d.html

These new ICs are factory binned up to DDR2-1000, which is 200mhz above any other DDR2 IC out know, including the current DDR2 IC king, D9GKX. Tom couldn't tell me more about the timings. Even 6-6-6 would be impressive as they are binned at 1.7v (1.8v +-0.1v) at an ambient temperature of 85C, 95C extended. Under these conditions the ICs easily run 120C+.

I'm trying to get more info ASAP about price and timings. Fabrication and testing takes a while so there is no info yet which products will feature these ICs. No doubt these ICs look very interesting. Elpida is known for making relatively cheap ICs and it's a very good thing that Micron now has some real competition in the ultra high-end market. D9GKX costs over $14/IC ATM. That's the reason why RAM with this IC runs over $400 for a 2GB pair.

Alex