Until recently, Intel's Pentium 4 microprocessor line only supported Rambus' RDRAM memory architecture--which was supposed to provide a major boost for the Mountain View, Calif.-based chip company and its bottom line.

But in a possible setback to Rambus, Intel recently rolled out chip sets that support the rival SDRAM technology, and most recently, double-data-rate (DDR) SDRAM.

Analysts believe the jury is still out on Intel's efforts to push SDRAM and DDR SDRAM for the Pentium 4 processor. But in any case, Rambus' bottom line has suffered, due in part to the overall downturn in the IC market, according to analysts.

Earlier this month, Rambus reported sales of $24.8 million for its first fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, a 28% decline over the same period last year and down 11% from the previous quarter. Net income for the quarter was $6.2 million, or $0.06 a share, compared to $13.0 million, or $0.12 a share, a year ago.

But still, executives from Rambus believe that the death of the Mountain View-based memory company is greatly exaggerated. Rambus has "10% of the memory market and is growing," declared Frank Fox, vice president and general manager of the RDRAM Standards Division at Rambus, in an interview at the Platform Conference on Wednesday.

Fox indicated that the company is experiencing brisk demand for RDRAMs in the PC, consumer, and networking sectors. The company's RDRAMs are used in the popular Playstation II game machines from Sony Corp. "There's also a renewed interested in high-performance PCs," he said. "That, of course, is good for RDRAMs," he said.

For months, Rambus' executives have insisted that the company's RDRAM technology provides superior performance over rival memory architectures, especially DDR SDRAM. "DDR is a difficult technology," Fox said. "We believe we have a 10% performance advantage over DDR," he said.

The company believes it is far ahead of DDR. Rambus, in fact, demonstrated the first PC running 1.2-GHz RDRAM memory at the Platform Conference in San Jose.

The company said an "overclocked" PC with Rambus DRAM will have peak bandwidth of 9.6-gigabits per second while running popular benchmarks to show performance and reliability. The Los Altos-based memory technology supplier said its RDRAM roadmap now includes speed grades for 1,066-MHz and 1,200-MHz memories, without changes in chip design or manufacturing industry infrastructure.

In fact, Rambus said the 1,200-MHz (1.2-GHz) memories used in today's demonstration were made in a high-volume wafer fab that's now producing 800-MHz RDRAM products. The chip maker and process technology were not initially identified by Rambus. However, Samsung Semiconductor Inc. today said its next-generation RDRAM devices were yielding significant quantities of 1,200-MHz memories in addition to significant volumes of 1,066-MHz chips. Samples of the 1.2-GHz parts are being supplied to Rambus.

Fox said the 1200-MHz RDRAMs will provide a superior solution over DDR. The new RDRAMs will "allow us to quadruple the module bandwidth," he said. "This will keep us way ahead of DDR," he said.

At present, Rambus is shipping 800-MHz RDRAMs. The company is sampling the 1066-MHz RDRAMs right now, with the new 1200-MHz parts due out in 2003, Fox said.