As much as Intel would love to have every consumer believe that all is well in the world of RDRAM (their own solution for high speed DRAM needs) the fact is that simply isn't true.

Sharky Extreme has learned that memory manufacturers around the globe are up in arms regarding the proprietary technology and licensing fees Intel is requiring to even begin to manufacture RDRAM DIMMS. Add to this the fact that SDRAM hasn't yet lived up to its full potential in the minds of the International SDRAM engineers, and you have the recipe for some high drama when the Intel Camino-based mainboards debut later this year.

Some speculate that RDRAM slots will not be included on the first versions of the Camino boards, instead standard PC-133 SDRAM will fill the need until Intel can hammer out some of the remaining hurtles that RDRAM faces currently, for an intro in early 2000.

Others contend that the Camino specification will call for a design with nothing but RDRAM slots on the board, if this is the case look for RAM manufacturers to hastily pump out "PC-133 SDRAM to RDRAM" converters. (Much as mainboard vendors are pumping out "Slotket" converters for S370 CPUs to function on Slot-1 based mainboards currently.)

Whatever the situation may be, HSDRAM will be able to not only fill the gap until RDRAM matures, it will also be able to handle the bandwidth requirements of AGP 4X rather nicely from the stability results we witnessed.