Samsung Develops Industry’s First DDR4 DRAM, Using 30nm Class Technology

[btarunr]

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, announced today that it completed development of the industry's first DDR4 DRAM module last month, using 30 nanometer (nm) class process technology.

"Samsung has been actively supporting the IT industry with our green memory initiative by coming up with eco-friendly, innovative memory products providing higher performance and power efficiency every year," said Dong Soo Jun, president, memory division, Samsung Electronics. "The new DDR4 DRAM will build even greater confidence in our cutting-edge green memory, particularly when we introduce four-gigabit (Gb) DDR4-based products using next generation process technology for mainstream application."



The new DDR4 DRAM module can achieve data transfer rates of 2.133 gigabits per second (Gbps) at 1.2V, compared to 1.35V and 1.5V DDR3 DRAM at an equivalent 30nm-class* process technology, with speeds of up to 1.6Gbps. When applied to a notebook, it reduces power consumption by 40 percent compared to a 1.5V DDR3 module.

The module makes use of Pseudo Open Drain (POD), a new technology that has been adapted to high-performance graphic DRAM to allow DDR4 DRAM to consume just half the electric current of DDR3 when reading and writing data.

By employing new circuit architecture, Samsung's DDR4 will be able to run from 1.6 up to 3.2Gbps, compared to today's typical speeds of 1.6Gbps for DDR3 and 800Mbps for DDR2.

Late last month, Samsung provided 1.2V 2 gigabyte (2GB) DDR4 unbuffered dual in-line memory modules (UDIMM) to a controller maker for testing.

Samsung now plans to work closely with a number of server makers to help insure completion of JEDEC standardization of DDR4 technologies in the second half of this year.

Samsung has been leading the advancement of DRAM technology ever since it developed the industry's first DDR DRAM in 1997. In 2001, it introduced the first DDR2 DRAM, and in 2005, announced the first DDR3 DRAM using 80nm-class technology.

For more information about Samsung Green memory, visit www.samsung.com/GreenMemory.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[TheLaughingMan]

Seriously, I have not been keeping up with DDR4. Is this going to work with the upcoming gen. processors? Will it fit into a DDR3 slot or do we have to look forward to a CPU revision later this year?

 

[bear jesus]

Seriously, I have not been keeping up with DDR4. Is this going to work with the upcoming gen. processors? Will it fit into a DDR3 slot or do we have to look forward to a CPU revision later this year?

The last i heard of DDR4 was that we should be looking to 2014 for wide availability, as the JEDEC spec has not been finalized yet i would assume 2012 to 2013 would be the kind of time we will start to see more news about desktop usage although i would love to be wrong about that.

Also as far as i knew it would once again be a new socket as it has been with past generations.

I would guess probably the generation after ivy bridge, that could possibly be out at the end of 2011 or start of 2012 according to rumors floating around.

 

[pjl321]

doesn't standout for me

When we are talking about tech products that are still years away then i want to be blown away with how amazing they sound but all this seems to be is a small step up in speed and a energy reduction.

GDDR4 failed and graphics cards moved quickly onto GDDR5. Is DDR4 based more on the former or latter?

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Now we just need a mobo to put it in . .. . common people any day now

 

[Mussels]

excellent, 1.2v for a starting point is great news.

 

[bear jesus]

excellent, 1.2v for a starting point is great news.

The designers of DDR4 memory are looking forward to 1.2V and 1.1V voltage settings for the new memory type and are even considering 1.05V option to greatly reduce power consumption of the forthcoming systems

Also another thing that seams interesting is this

"At a recent MemCon conference in Tokyo, Japan, Bill Gervasi, vice president of engineering at US Modular and a member of the JEDEC board of directors, revealed that the target effective clock-speeds for DDR4 memory would be 2133MHz - 4266MHz"

Would that mean 4266mhz at 1.2v as if so i would be very impressed

 

[TAViX]

When we are talking about tech products that are still years away then i want to be blown away with how amazing they sound but all this seems to be is a small step up in speed and a energy reduction.

GDDR4 failed and graphics cards moved quickly onto GDDR5. Is DDR4 based more on the former or latter?

No, no, no!! GDDR5 is based on DDR3

Now let's hope the timings wont be over 10....to much...

 

[HalfAHertz]

So will the new CPUs need upgraded memory controllers for these puppies?

 

[bear jesus]

So will the new CPUs need upgraded memory controllers for these puppies?

I would assume so, as far as i know there would be no difference between the move from DDR3 to DDR4 as with the move between between DDR , DDR2 and DDR3, as in a new one each time.

 

[Mussels]

I would assume so, as far as i know there would be no difference between the move from DDR3 to DDR4 as with the move between between DDR , DDR2 and DDR3, as in a new one each time.

same as between EDO to SDR, and so on with SDR, DDR1/2/3



previously, before IMC's it was just a mobo upgrade away (example: see all the combo boards that ran DDR2/3 on the same mobo, common on G41 boards atm) but now with IMC's it means a new CPU and board at minimum.

 

[HalfAHertz]

I was asking because for example the hd3800 could run both gddr3 and 4 on the same controller(and the hd4800 could run 3,4 and 5 for that matter). I know video cards and CPUs are quite different in operation and this is a bad example but that aside both ddr3 and ddr4 are dual pumped and should therefore work in similar way, no?

 

[pjl321]

Is no one else just a little disappointed with the talked about specs?

I was really hoping for something much better, frequencies in the 5000MHz region so we can put the RAM back in sync with CPU frequency again, maybe even something like triple or quad data rate, maybe even a massive switch to XDR RAM.

Just something to get excited about. We are talk about 2014, at that time nVidia is talking about graphics cards with 20x the performance of today’s, Intel might have their first tera-scale 48-core CPU out, AMD might be in profit! But in the RAM world we can look forward to improved efficiency!

 

[Mussels]

I was asking because for example the hd3800 could run both gddr3 and 4 on the same controller(and the hd4800 could run 3,4 and 5 for that matter). I know video cards and CPUs are quite different in operation and this is a bad example but that aside both ddr3 and ddr4 are dual pumped and should therefore work in similar way, no?

look at socket AM3 CPU's. they have a DDR3 and DDR2 controller. that doesnt mean they have a controller for DDR4 built into them in advance.

when AMD release new CPU's they could build in a DDR4 controller and DDR3/2 support if they want - but it works backwards, not forwards.

Is no one else just a little disappointed with the talked about specs?

I was really hoping for something much better, frequencies in the 5000MHz region so we can put the RAM back in sync with CPU frequency again, maybe even something like triple or quad data rate, maybe even a massive switch to XDR RAM.

Just something to get excited about. We are talk about 2014, at that time nVidia is talking about graphics cards with 20x the performance of today’s, Intel might have their first tera-scale 48-core CPU out, AMD might be in profit! But in the RAM world we can look forward to improved efficiency!

ram and CPU have never been in sync, except maybe back in/prior to the 486 days. The rest of your comments seems to be rambling, so i'll ignore them.

 

[pjl321]

ram and CPU have never been in sync, except maybe back in/prior to the 486 days. The rest of your comments seems to be rambling, so i'll ignore them.

LOL, I was thinking in the days of syncing the FSB to RAM speed.

OK so maybe i didn't express myself too elegantly but is DDR4 really the step up you hoped for? DDR3 has been out for years and DDR4 is not due for years, just think about how many other leaps in tech there have been in every other department except system memory.

 

[Mussels]

its lower power (thus heat and wattage), higher JEDEC standard clock speeds... so yes. its the perfect step forward, and completely in line with previous memory updates. (faster, cooler running)

 

[GSquadron]

I have heard the ddr4 memory will be available only in 2012 and what is more, PS4 and XBOX 3D(a.k.a 720) will take place in 2012 too
Also there wont be 2013

 

[pjl321]

its lower power (thus heat and wattage), higher JEDEC standard clock speeds... so yes. its the perfect step forward, and completely in line with previous memory updates. (faster, cooler running)

But if every component upgrade was like that then we would still be on single core CPU and low power cooler GPUs. We need big step ups in generation like in the CPU arena with dual core, quad, hex..., especially when generation are so many years apart!

Let me put it another way, if you analyse DDR3 performance when it first came out in 2007 and also look around at CPU performance and GPU performance. Then in 2014 when DDR4 comes out compare the two performances’ together along with what CPUs and GPUs are out in 2014. Which do you think will stand out massively and hardly moved on at all?

I know its so much easier to complain than to do something about it but i believe the main problem for such poor performance increases is that system memory is so closed to innervations as it all has to conform to JEDEC specs so closely to work. There is no completion, no alternative to DDRx.

 

[sneekypeet]

Gee I wonder if all of this low volt stuff will come with pretties heat spreaders

 

[Mussels]

no we wouldnt.

every generation upgrade gets us more speed for the same (or lower) wattage.

the dual core analogy is a perfect contradiction: dual/tri/quad channel memory is more than possible with DDR4 (and 3/2/1) if the memory controller supports it.

 

[pjl321]

no we wouldnt.

every generation upgrade gets us more speed for the same (or lower) wattage.

the dual core analogy is a perfect contradiction: dual/tri/quad channel memory is more than possible with DDR4 (and 3/2/1) if the memory controller supports it.

No its not, dual/tri/quad channel memory is like talking about SLi and Crossfire or dual CPU motherboards, of course you can increase performance by adding more 'devices' to do the job.

The ever increasing number of cores in CPUs eg the jump from single core to dual core was like the jump from SDR to DDR, my point is we haven't seen a jump like that in a long long time.

I can't believe you are defending the rate of increase in memory performance. CPU and GPU performances would have increase several time, maybe even an order of magnitude in the time from DDR3 to DDR4. I would expect DDR4 to bring 5-10% increase at most.

 

[Mussels]

By employing new circuit architecture, Samsung’s DDR4 will be able to run from 1.6 up to 3.2Gbps, compared to today’s typical speeds of 1.6Gbps for DDR3 and 800Mbps for DDR2.

they say they've doubled the speed, i beleive them. how did you make up the 5-10% gain? oh nevermind you DID make it up.


if you've actually checked with modern hardware, boosting memory speed gives us minimal gains. the boosts need to be made on the memory controller end. giving us faster MHz, tighter timings and lower operating voltages is all we need memory to do, and improve on.

 

[pjl321]

ok fine, we will wait and see but lets not forget it took almost a year for DDR3 to even beat DDR2 as the frequencies were about the same and latencies were very poor.

I just think it would be better for everyone if there was some competition as to what RAM was used. It wouldn't be easy but if say ASUS somehow released a motherboard with, for example, XDR2/3 memory that was able to run Sandy Bridge as normal and it had a good performance lead in memory intensive benchmarks then i think there would be a much greater rate of development on the old DDRx front.

PS

looking at your computer specs it doesn't seem 'saving power' is high on your list of priorities!

 

[Mussels]

looking at your computer specs it doesn't seem 'saving power' is high on your list of priorities!

90W at idle too high for you?

 

[cdawall]

90W at idle too high for you?

yes as my HTPC is lower you power hungry jerk.


back on topic i didn't see this on the AMD roadmap wonder what the chips will come with DDR4/3 i assume they kill DDR2 as its kinda dead. any info on capacities? 4gb mainstream would be nice.