Despite leading memory tester vendors Advantest and Verigy both having rolled out solutions for DDR3 testing, projection of a meaningful crossover between DDR3 and DDR2 has yet to be seen.
Advantest and Verigy have introduced the T5503 and V9300 HSM testers, respectively, to meet demand for DDR3 testing. Of the two vendors, Advantest has long had a dominant role in the DDR and DDR2 testing equipment market whereas Verigy has also drawn attention by extending its presence from system-on-chip (SoC) to DDR3 testing.
Advantest stressed that consumers are constantly looking for higher memory densities and better performance in their systems and DDR3 can help address such demands. As price competition among chipmakers will be severe, the importance of lower memory testing cost becomes more important, the company noted.
Verigy, though having its DDR3 testers gain adoption by several leading DRAM makers and testing companies, said PC makers can still hardly accept the high price premium of DDR3 over DDR2. Since the price of the same density DDR3 is currently about two to three times greater than that of DDR2, the penetration of DDR3 in DRAM production only reaches 3-4%.
PC makers will only grow their interest in DDR3 when the price of DDR3 shrinks to one and a half times or lower than that of DDR2, according to industry sources, who noted that such an event should occur in the second quarter of 2009. Once the price gap has been lowered, it may be possible to see the penetration of DDR3 reach 50% during late 2009, stated the sources.




