Samsung has begun mass production of 256Mb Rambus' XDR memory chips.

The devices transfer data at eight bits per clock cycle yielding 8GBps, ten times faster than 400MHz DDR SDRAM. They also incorporate Rambus' Differential Rambus Signal Level (DRSL) technology, Samsung said.

XDR, formerly codenamed 'Yellowstone', was developed by Rambus as the successor to its RDRAM system, once heralded as the future for PC memory but which lost out to the cheaper DDR.

XDR is held to be a strong contender for inclusion in Sony's PlayStation 3.

Samsung said it plans to follow the 256Mb device with a 512Mb part that ups the data throughput rate to 12.8GBps. ®

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