articles
FORUMS!
links
contact

PC Database
([an error occurred while processing this directive] entries)

Folding Team

SETI@HOME Team
RC5 Team
Genome Team

OCAU chat

KingMax have been a player in the Australian RAM market for a while now. I've been aware of their existence for a few years, but they never quite garner the same respect as the larger brands such as Corsair, Mushkin and Micron. This is a shame - in Australia there seems to be a real "just buy generic ram" culture, no doubt because it's quite hard to get the big name products here. KingMax are actually a Taiwanese company, and what I didn't know is that, besides a huge array of memory products, they also make a wide range of networking and communications gear ranging from network switches to mobile phones, PCMCIA modems+NIC's etc. Their Australian headquarters were kind enough to let me check out some of their new RAM products.

One of KingMax's recent achievements is their patented "TinyBGA" technology. This refers to the packaging of the SDRAM itself, a smaller form factor attached in an unusual method to the PCB of the stick. The next few pictures show these differences in detail, in comparison to a stick of HTL PC100 SDRAM:

You can clearly see the size difference between the HTL modules, at left, and the KingMax modules on the right. This allows them to make the entire stick shorter, which is good for people overclockers or anyone who likes to mount big coolers on their CPU's. Often, RAM slots are blocked by big coolers. I can tell you from experience that the TinyBGA KingMax can fit into slots where normal-height ram can't. The classic example is the monster VOS-32 cooler (reviewed separately here). You can actually rest the cooler's fans on top of a stick of KingMax TinyBGA, but most other RAM sticks simply won't fit into the space above the slot and below the VOS's fans.

The attachment method is also unique. Here's a closer look at the HTL module:

HTL PC100 module

Note the pins, soldered to the PCB. Compare the KingMax:

KingMax PC133 module

The bright white line at the top of the chip is silkscreening on the PCB, not actually on the chip. Notice there are no pins. If you look carefully at the chips end-on (impossible to photograph, sadly) you can see that the chip is actually mounted onto the PCB with several short connections almost in the centre of the chip.

KingMax claim that TinyBGA allows for 4 major advantages over conventional packaging methods: higher capacity (in that you can physically fit more chips onto a stick), higher electrical performance (the shorter, higher quality connections have less noise and allow higher frequencies), higher thermal dissipation and lower manufacturing cost. These all sound great, but we as consumers will have to see how this translates to real-world performance.

KingMax are applying this TinyBGA technology across a whole range of memory products. I was recently shown around KingMax Australia's headquarters and took a photo of some of the many different types of RAM they produce. Click for the big pic and an explanation of each stick. Close the new window to return here.

click for bigger pic + info

PC150?
I was quite interested when KingMax announced their PC150-compliant SDRAM. Interested because there isn't actually a standard called PC150. A search on EETimes, EBNews and, the people who actually make the standards, JEDEC's websites all return nothing on PC150 (but good luck finding ANYTHING on JEDEC's site). So it seems that KingMax are rating their SDRAM to 150MHz - if that's not an open invitation to overclock then I don't know what is. Anyway, the cynic in me thought that KingMax might just be testing and bin-sorting their PC133 stock and labelling the good stuff as PC150. But no, they are actually differently rated chips:

KingMax PC150 module

Note the -6 nanosecond rating as opposed to the -7 chips found on their PC133 modules. This is good - it's ethically much nicer than bin-sorting sticks, and it implies higher performance than the PC133 sticks, but realistically the nanosecond rating is not too decisive a performance indicator. We'll see how much real-world difference there is in the benchmarks on page 3.

Unfortunately, one of the things that jumps to mind when KingMax RAM is mentioned is their recent compatability problems with certain motherboards. On the next page I cover this in some detail and offer some good news..