MUNICH, Germany — Memory maker Qimonda announced that it was selected by Microsoft as a preferred supplier of graphics RAM memory chips for the Xbox 360 game console. The move is expected to have a positive effect on Qimonda's business volatility.

According to a press release issued Monday (June 12), Qimonda will supply a "significant" share of 512-Mbit GDDR3 RAM devices for the game console. A Qimonda spokesperson declined to provide details, but given the forecast sales figures for the Xbox 360 of 10 million units until end of the year, the Microsoft order can be seen as significant.

According to the contract with Microsoft, Qimonda is now the preferred supplier of graphics RAM for the Xbox 360. The multi-year contract would translate to Qimonda as a reduction of the volatility, said Qimonda board member Thomas Seifert, according to a Reuters report.

In the first quarter, Qimonda achieved a sales volume of 928 million euros ($ 1.15 billion). 16 % of this figure was accounted by speciality memory products including graphics devices for game console. "We expect this share to grow significantly through the Microsoft order", Seifert said.

Microsoft projects the sale of 5 million Xbox 360 units until the end of its fiscal year, ending June 30. Before the launch of competing products from Sony and Nintendo which can be expected by year-end 2006, Microsoft aims at selling 10 million units, a spokesperson of the software giant told EE Times.

In the Xbox 360, each of the eight GDDR3 16Mbit x 32 components used operates at a rated clock speed to achieve data bandwidth of up to 44.8Gbit/s per memory device. The 512Mbit GDDR3 comes in a JEDEC compliant 136 ball FBGA package with dimensions of 11mm x 14mm x 1.2mm.