While you lounged about all weekend Samsung fired up its biggest-ever chip factory and started cranking out 16Gb LPDDR5 DRAM
- Reference: 1598878990
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/08/31/samsung_16gb_lpddr5_production_commences/
- Source link:
The Low-Power Double Data Rate Synchronous DRAM spec allows data to move at up to 6,400 megabits per second (Mb/s) and Samsung says it’s hit that speed, topping the snail’s pace of 5,500Mb/s offered in 12Gb LPDDR packages.
The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, which oversees the LPDDR5 standard, says it “introduces two new command-based operations to improve system power consumption by reducing data transmission: Data-Copy and Write-X.”
“The Data-Copy command instructs the LPDDR5 device to copy data transmitted on a single I/O pin to the other I/O pins, eliminating the need to transmit data to the other pins. The Write-X command instructs the device to write all-ones or all-zeros to a specific address, eliminating the need to send data from the SoC to the LPDDR5 device. Reducing data transmission with these new commands will help reduce overall system power consumption.”
Sammy reckons it’s done all of that and managed to make its 16Gb package 30 percent thinner than its 12Gb predecessor.
[1]
RAM, glorious RAM. Click to enlarge
The Korean giant says the first lot of this new RAM will be used to “strengthen its presence in the flagship mobile device market throughout 2021.” Which suggests 16GB could become standard in next year’s high-end Galaxy models, and perhaps those offered by rivals.
The company’s announcement also says Samsung will “expand the use of its LPDDR5 offerings into automotive applications, offering an extended temperature range to meet strict safety and reliability standards in extreme environments.”
To get it all built, Samsung is using its biggest-ever silicon-baking-barn. The new Pyeongtaek Line 2 occupies 128,900 square meters, which the company says is equivalent to about 16 soccer fields. The facility will also make DRAM, next-generation V-NAND and offer foundry services. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/08/31/pr_supplied_samsung_lpddr5_ram.jpg
[2] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Soccer fields?
So 6.2 microWales. Oh that makes much more sense now...
You say 16 Gb, the picture shows 16 GB
So, which is it?
Re: You say 16 Gb, the picture shows 16 GB
Marketing hat=ON
What's the difference
Re: 16Gb, 16GB
It looks like both on [1]Samsung's site . The photo is a 16GB package containing 8x 16Gb chips.
[1] https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-begins-mass-production-of-16gb-lpddr5-dram-at-worlds-largest-semiconductor-line
Always registered.
What I find interesting about DDR5, I guess, is that supposedly all DDR5 is registered. It would be nice when buying RAM to _NOT_ have to check that you picked the "buffered"/"unbuffered" version. That said, if you look at DDR6 (six), you kind of have to wonder why they just don't skip 5, as 6 is not too dissimilar and seems to better approach the low power goal of 5. That part scares me a bit, as DDR6 (six) appears to be more like DDR5.1, so could a ".1" appear in the future, taking the USB 3.x confusion approach (where nobody has a fuck'n clue which USB 3 standard we're on)?
Re: USB 3 Standard
And the recent renaming has really helped normal people understand what different between USB 3.1 and USB 3.0 (NOT!)
Re: Always registered.
JEDEC solves the problem for DRAM by defining DIMMs that won't fit if their version doesn't match the version of the slot. USB uses the same connector for everything, but has different capabilities of the port and even the cable to create mass confusion.
Soccer fields?
El Reg convertor 128900 sqm spits out 31.8 football pitches ?
Is this soccer thing played on a larger American version ?
Maybe it's just the .com effect of the ElReg abandoning it's .co.uk roots :0