Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[chipguy]

Compared to DDR, RDRAM needs far more expensive ATE

There are some new BIST techniques for testing highspeed interfaces on old ATE. This is related to why I don't think Hammer needs new expensive ATE either.

That may be but I am far from convinced that such techniques
would be applicable to RDRAM's very tight timing and electrical
requirements. DRAM vendors that made RDRAM would have
looked under every rock and behind every bush for any alternative
to buying such expensive new ATE. Given that in many cases Intel
ponied up the dough for this ATE to get the RDRAM supply up
and running I am sure it would have looked at alternatives too.