PROCESSORS

Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. (SiS), a leading provider of core logic chips, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor memory technology, and Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS), a leading developer of chip-to-chip interface products and services, announced the availability of the SiSR659 chipset, targeted at high-performance computing and multimedia gaming markets. In addition to providing the highest memory performance, the SiSR659 chipset is also the first PC chipset to incorporate a dynamic look-ahead buffer and adaptive page management to significantly improve memory access speed. "The SiSR659 chipset combines unprecedented performance and features for desktop PCs," said Michael Chen, president and CEO of SiS. "SiS and Rambus continue to develop innovative RDRAM chipsets that will enhance the computing experience." For performance across a wide range of applications, the SiSR659 chipset supports Pentium(R) 4 processors with 800MHz front side bus, and features a low-latency architecture with Advanced HyperStreaming(TM) Engine (AHSE) technology. "The SiS chipset featuring four-channel RDRAM and Samsung high-speed RDRAM modules provides PC OEMs and system integrators the competitive advantage for building top-performing PCs," said Tom Quinn, vice president of marketing, Samsung Semiconductor Inc. Available for mass production, the SiSR659 chipset drives four channels of 1200MHz RDRAM memory resulting in 9.6GByte/sec of memory bandwidth. "With the four-channel architecture, RDRAM memory reclaims the lead as the top-performing solution for PC computing, bringing 50 percent higher bandwidth than dual-channel DDR memory," said Laura Stark, vice president of the Memory Interface Division at Rambus. "The SiSR659 chipset is another example of the commitment to innovation that SiS, Samsung and Rambus have made to advance PC computing." The SiSR659 chipset achieves unmatched performance using standard commodity RIMM modules available today and already supported by the industry. This latest RDRAM solution pairs the SiSR659 with the SiS964 south bridge, which integrates USB 2.0 with up to eight ports and Serial ATA features.