The net is full of articles talking about how this or that technology company is controlling their software, hardware, IP (Intellectual Property) or some other item that they want to complain about. You also cannot run a search on net-neutrality, DCMA, MPAA, RIAA, Pirate Bay or, of course Apple without hearing about how medieval and out dated their concepts of fair usage is. I have talked about this kind of corporate control for years as well. It I oppressive, stifles the market and Hurst consumers. However, there is one type of control that is good for the consumer. This is the type of control that Kingston is holding over their ValueRAM Server Premier memory. What Kingston has done is take their already great server memory and add an extra level of quality control to ensure maximum performance and stability. They have done this by controlling every part that goes into this product right down to the revision of chip die. Let’s take a quick look at how this works and what it means to the consumer and enterprise.
There is a BOM!BOM (Build of Materials) references every part that goes into building a specific part. If you were building a Video Card your BOM would include each component right down to the resistors and PCB used in the product. Normally a BOM is only component specific. A BOM might say six layer PSB (Green) or 100 .1 Ohm resistors but it would not go so far as to state the Lot Number, revision number or anything else. If you take a typical stick of memory you might notice that the chips do not always match for lot number. The same can be said for building any component. Companies do not have time to match lot numbers as they build product. In fact most do not even try. They take parts from stock as they are put in. Oddly enough, it is only by chance that you get parts from the same Lot. This happens because when Lots are manufacturer they are packaged for shipment around the same time so these components end up going to the same places. As Lots are usually in the hundreds of thousands there is a good chance that you may get the same Lot parts in a single product. To a consumer buying a dual or triple channel kit of memory you this means that your chance of getting parts with different Lot components it fairly slim. To the Enterprise customer who buys 16, 32, 48, or more sticks of memory in a single purchase the likelihood goes up dramatically.
