Samsung has announced that it has started mass production of 12-gigabit (Gb) LPDDR4 (low power, double data rate 4) mobile DRAM. The firm claims an industry first with this production milestone, which uses its 20nm process technology. The new chips offer faster speeds, increased density and lower power usage and will enable next gen mobile devices to come equipped with 6GB of RAM fitting into the same space used by current 3GB LPDDR4 packages.
Joo Sun Choi, executive vice president of Memory Sales and Marketing at Samsung Electronics said "By initiating mass production of 12Gb LPDDR4 mobile DRAM in an extremely timely manner, we now are not only helping OEMs to accelerate their moves to the next generation of mobile devices, but also providing functionality that will give mobile consumers greatly enhanced user experiences". Choi went on to hint that the 12Gb LPDDR4 DRAM will be used in devices beyond smartphones and tablets to create "new digital markets".
Twice as fast as DDR4 DRAM for PCs*
Samsung says that its new DRAM offers 4,266 megabits per second (Mbps), compared to the preceding 20nm-based 8Gb LPDDR4 DRAM its 30 per cent faster. Compared to DDR4 DRAM for PCs it is said to be "twice as fast," while consuming 20 per cent less energy. Further advantages are that manufacturing productivity of the 12Gb LPDDR4 has been raised more than 50 percent over previous lower density chips. That should make devices with more RAM more affordable and popular.
In next-gen mobiles 6GB of LPDDR4 mobile DRAM "will allow consumers to enjoy seamless multitasking and maximum performance within the latest operating system (OS) environments," suggests Samsung. That may be a feature hint to a Samsung Galaxy S7 specification. Samsung indicates that the new higher capacity chips require little or no product modifications from device designers. As well as the headlining 6GB modules (using 4 x 12Gb LPDDR4 chips) it will also be offering a two chip module offering 3GB of RAM.
