ASUS Republic of Gamers today announced the launch of the ROG NUC gaming PC. The first-ever ROG NUC PC is packed with cutting-edge technology and performance for AAA gaming and more.

Gaming, redefined
Featuring Intel Core Ultra 9 or Intel Core Ultra 7 processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 or 4060 discrete graphics, the ROG NUC PC is a compact powerhouse that delivers unmatched gaming experiences. The high-performance hybrid architecture of Intel Core Ultra processors provides gamers with the power needed to stream, edit, record and play without skipping a beat. The 2.5-liter chassis is designed for quick system access to make upgrades and cleaning easy. Plus, the compatible ROG Raikiri Pro controller can be used to deliver a console-like experience for gamers seeking uncompromised performance and flexibility in a compact form factor.

SK hynix presented its leading AI memory solutions at COMPUTEX Taipei 2024 from June 4-7. As one of Asia's premier IT shows, COMPUTEX Taipei 2024 welcomed around 1,500 global participants including tech companies, venture capitalists, and accelerators under the theme "Connecting AI". Making its debut at the event, SK hynix underlined its position as a first mover and leading AI memory provider through its lineup of next-generation products.

"Connecting AI" With the Industry's Finest AI Memory Solutions
Themed "Memory, The Power of AI," SK hynix's booth featured its advanced AI server solutions, groundbreaking technologies for on-device AI PCs, and outstanding consumer SSD products. HBM3E, the fifth generation of HBM1, was among the AI server solutions on display. Offering industry-leading data processing speeds of 1.18 terabytes (TB) per second, vast capacity, and advanced heat dissipation capability, HBM3E is optimized to meet the requirements of AI servers and other applications. Another technology which has become crucial for AI servers is CXL as it can increase system bandwidth and processing capacity. SK hynix highlighted the strength of its CXL portfolio by presenting its CXL Memory Module-DDR5 (CMM-DDR5), which significantly expands system bandwidth and capacity compared to systems only equipped with DDR5. Other AI server solutions on display included the server DRAM products DDR5 RDIMM and MCR DIMM. In particular, SK hynix showcased its tall 128-gigabyte (GB) MCR DIMM for the first time at an exhibition.

On June 4th, COMPUTEX 2024 was successfully held at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center. Mnemonic Electronic Co., Ltd., the Taiwanese subsidiary of Longsys, showcased industry-leading high-capacity SSDs under the theme "Embracing the Era of High-Capacity SSDs." The products on display included the Mnemonic MS90 8TB SATA SSD, FORESEE ORCA 4836 series enterprise NVMe SSDs, FORESEE XP2300 PCIe Gen 4 SSDs, and rich product lines comprising embedded storage, memory modules, memory cards, and more. The company offers reliable industrial-grade, automotive-grade, and enterprise-grade storage products, providing high-capacity solutions for global users.

High-Capacity SSDs
For SSDs, Mnemonic Electronic presented products in various form factors and interfaces, including PCIe M.2, PCIe BGA, SATA M.2, and SATA 2.5-inch. The Mnemonic MS90 8 TB SATA SSD supports the SATA interface with a speed of up to 6 Gb/s (Gen 3) and is backward compatible with Gen 1 and Gen 2. It also supports various SATA low-power states (Partial/Sleep/Device Sleep) and can be used for nearline HDD replacement, surveillance, and high-speed rail systems.

Kingston at the 2024 Computex showed us their latest gaming and overclocking PC memory products, under its FURY brand. The star attraction here, is the FURY Impact DDR5 CAMM2 module. Kingston is partnering with MSI to bring this standard to the gaming PC space, as part of its new Project Zero ecosystem. A DDR5 CAMM2 is basically a dual-channel (4 sub-channel) DDR5 memory-on-a-stick. The module has wiring for both the channels and all four sub-channels, and a total of two ranks (1R/DPC). The module sits on a land-grid, just like the processor, and is held in place by a series of screws. When installed, a CAMM2 looks a lot more discreet than a bunch of DIMMs that stick out perpendicularly to the plane of the motherboard.

Kingston DDR5 CAMM2 will come in typical dual-channel capacities, such as 32 GB; with typical speeds. The CAMM2 standard was originally designed for mainstream notebooks and mini-PC desktops, but MSI adapted it to an ATX desktop motherboard with its Project Zero backside connectivity. Next up, we have the FURY Renegade RGB DDR5 series, with its high DDR5 speeds, and plenty of RGB bling. Densities range between 16 GB (1x 16 GB) to 96 GB (2x 48 GB), with popular densities along the way, such as 2x 16 GB, and 2x 24 GB. Speeds range between DDR5-6000, all the way till DDR5-8000 (with XMP 3.0).

Biwin is a licensee of SSDs, PC memory, and flash storage products for some for the biggest PC brands out there, including Acer and HP. This year, the company decided to launch a whole product stack under its own brand, so it could sell to the retail channel directly. We also spotted several licensed products under the coveted Acer Predator brand. Let's start our tour with them: the company showed us an Acer Predator Hera memory kit with 48 GB (2x 24 GB), which does an impressive DDR5-8000, at 40-48-48-128, and 1.35 V. The kit includes a DDR5-8000 @ 1.35 V XMP. The module features a mirror-finish metal heat spreader, and an RGB illuminated top. There are also 32 GB (2x 16 GB) kits in the series that go up to DDR5-8200.

Biwin's own first-party brand isn't too far behind the Predator Hera, the company showed us the Biwin (Editor's note: Wookong is local for Asia and will not be part of international branding) DW100 RGB, a high-end memory series, with kit capacities ranging from 32 GB (2x 16 GB) to 64 GB (2x 32 GB), speeds ranging from DDR5-6000 to DDR5-8200, and vDIMM going up to 1.45 V on the top-spec kit. There's also the DX100, which trades a little bit of performance for a more elaborate RGB LED setup. It comes in capacities up to 64 GB (2x 32 GB), and speeds of up to DDR5-8000. The HX100 is the mid-range kit, it lacks any lighting, capacities range up to 64 GB, and speeds of up to DDR5-7200. The timings aren't as tight as the ones on the DX100. Biwin also has a DDR5 LPCAMM2, with capacities of up to 64 GB, and speeds of up to 9600 MT/s. Most of Biwin's DRAM products launch in July 2024.

GeIL booth was packed with all kinds of memories, anyone could find something for their taste, but our eyes gazed in hope at a few (yet) CAMM2 / LPCAMM2 memory samples. GeIL says that those are capable of supporting data transfer rates up to 8533 MT/s with up to 128 GB capacity. Just next to those a myriad of DDR5 with up to 8400 MT/s and RGB features were trying to catch attention. TUF Gaming Alliance, Orion V RGB (with integrated power management on the DIMM), the EVO V series with active dual fan cooling system, or Polaris family to which GeIL feels the need to mention that it fits most CPU coolers without mechanical interference.More pictures follow.

MSI, a leading global server provider, today announced the availability of high-performance server platforms supporting AMD EPYC 4004 Processors for small and medium businesses and regional-hosted IT service providers to deliver essential security capabilities and energy efficiency. "Businesses across all scales are discovering the advantages of advanced computing, connectivity, and analytics capabilities as applications and services become more widespread," said Danny Hsu, General Manager of Enterprise Platform Solutions. "MSI server platforms, supporting AMD EPYC 4004 Processors, empower our customers to implement high-performance computing with cost-effective, ease of deployment, and manageability features. This capability addresses challenges such as system costs, limited IT expertise, and other infrastructure constraints that were previously prohibitive."

"The new AMD EPYC 4004 Series CPUs, along with our strong ecosystem of technology partners, bring enterprise solutions to a traditionally underserved market and ensure that small and medium businesses have access to highly-performant technologies that help them stay competitive," said John Morris, corporate vice president, Enterprise and HPC Business Group, AMD. "The AMD EPYC 4004 CPUs fill an important market gap, providing cost-optimized solutions with enterprise-grade dependability, scalability and security in cost-optimized system configurations that make sense for smaller businesses and dedicated hosters."

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced the availability of Crucial LPCAMM2, the disruptive next-generation laptop memory form factor that features LPDDR5X mobile memory to level up laptop performance for professionals and creators. Consuming up to 58% less active power and with a 64% space savings compared to DDR5 SODIMMs, LPCAMM2 delivers higher bandwidth and dual-channel support with a single module. LPCAMM2 is an ideal high-performance memory solution for handling AI PC and complex workloads and is compatible with the powerful and versatile Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 mobile workstations.

"LPCAMM2 is a game-changer for mobile workstation users who want to enjoy the benefits of the latest mobile high performance memory technology without sacrificing superior performance, upgradeability, power efficiency or space," said Jonathan Weech, senior director of product marketing for Micron's Commercial Products Group. "With LPCAMM2, we are delivering a future-proof memory solution, enabling faster speeds and longer battery life to support demanding creative and AI workloads."

Thanks to recent developments in the AI field, and following in the wake of the world's recovery from COVID-19, the transition of factories to partial or full automation proceeds with unstoppable momentum. And the best place to learn about the latest technologies that aim to make this transition as painless as possible is at Automate 2024. This is North America's largest robotics and automation event, and it will be held in Chicago, Illinois from May 6 to 9.

Automate attracts professionals from around the world, and Apacer is no exception. Apacer team will be on hand to discuss the latest technological developments created by our experienced R&D team. Many of these developments were specifically created to reduce the pain points commonly experienced by fully automated facilities. Take CoreSnapshot, for example. This backup and recovery technology can restore a crashed system to full operation in just a few seconds, reducing downtime and associated maintenance costs. Apacer recently updated CoreSnapshot, creating CoreRescue ASR and CoreRescue USR. The name of CoreRescue ASR refers to Auto Self Recovery. This technology will harness AI to learn the system booting process and analyze how long a boot should take. If this average boot time is significantly longer than usual, the system will trigger the self-recovery process and revert to an earlier, uncorrupted version of the drive's content. CoreRescue USR offers similar functionality, except the self-recovery process is triggered by connecting a small USB stick drive.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), today announced it is leading the industry by validating and shipping its high-capacity monolithic 32Gb DRAM die-based 128 GB DDR5 RDIMM memory in speeds up to 5,600 MT/s on all leading server platforms. Powered by Micron's industry-leading 1β (1-beta) technology, the 128 GB DDR5 RDIMM memory delivers more than 45% improved bit density, up to 22% improved energy efficiency and up to 16% lower latency over competitive 3DS through-silicon via (TSV) products.

Micron's collaboration with industry leaders and customers has yielded broad adoption of these new high-performance, large-capacity modules across high-volume server CPUs. These high-speed memory modules were engineered to meet the performance needs of a wide range of mission-critical applications in data centers, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), high-performance computing (HPC), in-memory databases (IMDBs) and efficient processing for multithreaded, multicore count general compute workloads. Micron's 128 GB DDR5 RDIMM memory will be supported by a robust ecosystem including AMD, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Intel, Supermicro, along with many others.

Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS), a premier chip and silicon IP provider making data faster and safer, today announced the availability of its new family of state-of-the-art DDR5 server Power Management ICs (PMICs), including an industry-leading extreme current device for high-performance applications. With this new family of server PMICs, Rambus offers module manufacturers a complete DDR5 RDIMM memory interface chipset supporting a broad range of data center use cases.

"Advanced data center workloads like generative AI require the highest bandwidth and capacity server RDIMMs tailored to meet ever-increasing memory needs of a growing data pipeline," said Sean Fan, chief operating officer at Rambus. "With the addition of this new family of server PMICs, we expand our foundational technology and offer customers a comprehensive memory interface chipset that supports multiple DDR5 server platform generations."

SK hynix showcased its next-generation technologies and strengthened key partnerships at the TSMC 2024 Technology Symposium held in Santa Clara, California on April 24. At the event, the company displayed its industry-leading HBM AI memory solutions and highlighted its collaboration with TSMC involving the host's CoWoS advanced packaging technology.

TSMC, a global semiconductor foundry, invites its major partners to this annual conference in the first half of each year so they can share their new products and technologies. Attending the event under the slogan "Memory, the Power of AI," SK hynix received significant attention for presenting the industry's most powerful AI memory solution, HBM3E. The product has recently demonstrated industry-leading performance, achieving input/output (I/O) transfer speed of up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) in an AI system during a performance validation evaluation.

Today, Lenovo launched its latest mobile workstation offerings meticulously crafted to deliver the exceptional power and performance essential for handling complex workloads. Lenovo's ThinkPad P1 Gen 7, P16v i Gen 2, P16s i Gen 3, and P14s i Gen 5, with their cutting-edge AI technologies, are set to transform the way professionals engage with AI workflows. By collaborating with industry partners, Intel, NVIDIA, and Micron, Lenovo has introduced powerful and performance-packed AI PCs that meet the demands of modern-day AI-intensive tasks. The inclusion of the Intel Core Ultra processors with their integrated neural processing unit (NPU) and NVIDIA RTX Ada Generation GPUs signifies a major advancement in AI technology, boosting overall performance and productivity capabilities.

The latest ThinkPad P series mobile workstations powered by Intel Core Ultra processors and NVIDIA RTX Ada Generation GPUs deliver flexible, high-performance, and energy-efficient AI-ready PCs. The integrated NPU is dedicated to handling light, continuous AI tasks, while the NVIDIA GPU runs more demanding day-to-day AI processing. This combination enables smooth and reliable functioning of AI technologies, serving professionals engaged in diverse tasks ranging from 3D modeling and scene development to AI inferencing and training.

Corsair today announced it is entering the DDR5 Workstation market with the introduction of a range of WS DDR5 RDIMM memory kits. Engineered to offer uncompromising performance and reliability, these ECC RDIMM kits redefine the capabilities of the newest workstations, and are compatible with the latest 4th Gen Intel Xeon and AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 processors.

This new range of memory kits boasts capacities of up to 256 GB, setting a new standard for memory-intensive tasks such as high-resolution media editing, 3D rendering, and AI training. Rigorously tested and carefully screened, these modules surpass JEDEC specifications with tighter timings and higher frequencies, ensuring optimal performance for the most demanding workloads.

Montage Technology, a leading data processing and interconnect IC company, today announced that it has taken the lead in the trial production of 1st-generation DDR5 Clock Driver (CKD) chips for next-generation client memory. This new product aims to enhance the speed and stability of memory data access to match the ever-increasing CPU operating speed and performance.

Previously, clock driver functionality was integrated into the Registering Clock Driver (RCD) chips used on server RDIMM or LRDIMM modules, not deployed to the PCs. In the DDR5 era, as data rates climb 6400 MT/s and above, the clock driver has emerged as an indispensable component for client memory.

Micron representatives showcased new products at last week's NVIDIA GTC event—one eye-catching DIMM is all set for deployment within next-generation servers. Tom's Hardware spent some time at Micron's booth—they found out that the "Tall Form Factor" 256 GB DDR5-8800 Multiplexer Combined Ranks (MCR) DIMM is being prepared for future enterprise processor platforms, including Intel's Xeon Scalable "Granite Rapids" family. A lone "tall" prototype module was exhibited, but company representatives indicated that standard height MCRDIMMs are in development. Tom's Hardware found out that these will compact enough to fit in 1U-sized server systems. According to their in-person experience: "(Micron's) 256 GB MCRDIMMs are based on monolithic 32 Gb DDR5 ICs, but the tall one places 80 DRAM chips on both sides of the module, whereas the standard one uses 2Hi stacked packages, which means that they run slightly hotter due to less space for thermal dissipation. In any case, the tall module consumes around 20 W, which isn't bad as Micron's 128 GB DDR5-8000 RDIMM consumes 10 W at DDR5-4800."

In a recent earnings call, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, commented on his company's latest technology: "we (have) started sampling our 256 GB MCRDIMM module, which further enhances performance and increases DRAM content per server." Next-gen Intel Xeon platforms are expected to support 12 or 24 memory slots per processor socket. Enabled datacenter machines could be specced with total 3 TB or 6 TB (DDR5-8000) memory capacities. AnandTech has summarized the benefits of Micron's new part: "Multiplexer Combined Ranks (MCR) DIMMs are dual-rank memory modules featuring a specialized buffer that allows both ranks to operate simultaneously. This buffer enables the two physical ranks to operate as though they were separate modules working in parallel, which allows for concurrent retrieval of 128 bytes of data from both ranks per clock cycle—compared to 64 bytes per cycle when it comes to regular memory modules—effectively doubling performance of a single module." The added complexity is offset by significant performance boons—ideal for advanced server-side AI-crunching in the future.

MemVerge, a leader in AI-first Big Memory Software, has joined forces with Micron to unveil a groundbreaking solution that leverages intelligent tiering of CXL memory, boosting the performance of large language models (LLMs) by offloading from GPU HBM to CXL memory. This innovative collaboration is being showcased in Micron booth #1030 at GTC, where attendees can witness firsthand the transformative impact of tiered memory on AI workloads.

Charles Fan, CEO and Co-founder of MemVerge, emphasized the critical importance of overcoming the bottleneck of HBM capacity. "Scaling LLM performance cost-effectively means keeping the GPUs fed with data," stated Fan. "Our demo at GTC demonstrates that pools of tiered memory not only drive performance higher but also maximize the utilization of precious GPU resources."

MSI, a leading global server provider, will showcase its latest liquid-cooled and GPU servers powered by AMD processors and 5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, optimized to meet the evolving needs of modern data centers, at CloudFest 2024, booth #H02 in Europa-Park from March 19-21. "With an increasing number of data centers leveraging applications like AI to enhance customer experience, the demands for more computing power and higher density deployments have driven significant changes in IT infrastructure, leading to greater use of liquid cooling," said Danny Hsu, General Manager of Enterprise Platform Solutions. "MSI's liquid-cooled server platforms enable data centers to deliver efficiency while deploying more compute-intensive workloads."

The G4101 is a 4U 4GPU server platform designed for AI training workloads. It supports a single AMD EPYC 9004 Series processor equipped with a liquid cooling module, along with twelve DDR5 RDIMM slots. Additionally, it features four PCIe 5.0 x16 slots tailored for triple-slot graphic cards with coolers, ensuring increased airflow and sustained performance. With twelve front 2.5-inch U.2 NVMe/SATA drive bays, it offers high-speed and flexible storage options, catering to the diverse needs of AI workloads. The G4101 combines air flow spacing and liquid closed-loop cooling, making it the optimal thermal management solution for even the most demanding tasks.

An unusual memory configuration has been spotted on an HONOR MagicBook Pro 16 AI laptop—Golden Pig Upgrade (via Weibo) has shared a brief snippet of footage from a Task Manager session. It confirms that non-binary symmetrical LPDDR5(X) memory is now operating within portable Windows 11 devices, at least in China. Crucial 12 GB capacity DDR5 SODIMM products were uncovered a couple of days ago—at the time, tech enthusiasts wondered whether other options were due in the near future. Recent Geekbench Browser entries have unveiled several "HONOR DRA-XX" Intel Core Ultra-powered devices that sport 24 GB memory configurations.

Manufacturers have been deliberating over new 12 GB, 24 GB, and 48 GB standards for roughly two years—we witnessed the release of commercial desktop products last year. It has taken longer for OEM options to arrive, but HONOR seems to be pioneering a rollout within the slimline laptop segment. VideoCardz has analyzed Golden Pig Upgrade's short clip—they believe that the demoed MagicBook Pro 16 (dual-channel) has a soldered-on: "total capacity of 24 GB based on LPDDR5X technology. Instead of relying on SODIMM modules, this laptop has eight individual memory chips, each with a capacity of 3 GB, totaling 24 GB of LPDDR5X-6400 memory." Upcoming enthusiast-class portable systems—with quadruple SODIMM slot setups—could be fitted with maximum 48 GB capacities. The latest developments signal a pleasing breakaway from traditional laptop system memory limits of 16 and 32 GB.

ASUS today announced BIOS updates that enable support for up to 256 GB of memory on its Intel 700 and 600 series motherboards that use DDR5 modules. Such models with four DIMM slots can now support up to 256 GB of memory, while such models with two DIMM slots can now support up to 128 GB. These enhancements significantly improve multitasking potential, ensuring smooth and seamless computing. AMD AM5 motherboards from ASUS do not require a BIOS update to enable support for up to 256 GB of DDR5 memory modules.

The BIOS updates can be accessed on the ASUS support pages for the models listed below.

By the end of 2023, MSI unveiled its groundbreaking support for memory capacities of up to 256 GB. Now, both MSI Intel and AMD motherboards official support these capacities, with 4 DIMMs enabling 256 GB and 2 DIMMs supporting 128 GB. This advancement enhances multitasking capabilities and ensures seamless computing operations.

Intel Motherboard - 700 & 600 Series Platform, BIOS Rolling Out
The supported platforms for this memory capacity enhancement include Intel 700 and 600 series DDR5 motherboards. Gamers looking to benefit from these enhancements will need to upgrade to the own dedicated BIOS. MSI is currently diligently working on releasing the BIOS, with the first batch already available below. The rest of the models will be released in late February and March.

AMD's newly announced Ryzen 8000G "Hawk Point" desktop APUs do not support ECC memory, contrary to what the specifications on the AMD website had initially shown, Reddit users found out. The company has since quietly edited its product pages to remove the bit about ECC support. For the overwhelming majority of desktop client use cases, including enthusiast PCs, ECC memory support is irrelevant. That said, the memory controllers of "Phoenix" in Ryzen PRO 7000 mobile processors for commercial notebooks support ECC memory, and so it stands to reason that upcoming Ryzen PRO models for both commercial desktops and notebooks might feature it.

The AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G are based on the 4 nm "Hawk Point" monolithic silicon, with a more overclocker-friendly set of DDR5 memory controllers than the ones found in the Ryzen 7000 "Raphael" processors. Besides support for several high-frequency DDR5 modes, the memory controller technically supports ECC (at least "Phoenix" does, on the Ryzen PRO 7000 mobile processors). The memory controller also supports a maximum of 256 GB of memory, or 64 GB dual-rank memory modules per slot. It also supports 24 GB and 48 GB DIMM densities.

An exclusive report provides an initial tease of MSI's relaunch of MPOWER—a beloved product line of high performance yet wallet friendly motherboards. Wccftech published their Z790MPOWER model coverage only a few hours ago. MSI's final batch of MPOWER-branded boards landed back in 2017, with Z170 and Z270 chipsets (on Intel Socket 1151). Here is Wccftech's statement on the matter: "MSI is marking the return of the MPOWER series with a new and cost-effective Z790 product, the Z790MPOWER. This motherboard may look like a very mainstream design but it has something that only a few high-end motherboards can do and that is support for the best DDR5 memory out there."

They moved onto showcasing the board's feature set: "Starting with the details, the MSI Z790MPOWER motherboard features the LGA 1700/1800 socket & supports 12th, 13th, and 14th Gen CPUs from Intel. It is powered by a 15-Phase VRM design which is provided power through dual 8-pin connectors. There are large heatsinks over the VRMs and the Mini-ATX with a silver and black finish looks great." The usual bits of overclocking terminology adorn Z790MPOWER's various heatsinks—including "Overclock, Frequency, MHz, Voltages and Clock."

According to sources close to Seoul Economy, and reported by DigiTimes, Intel has reportedly chosen Samsung as a supplier for its next-generation Lunar Lake processors, set to debut later this year. The report notes that Samsung will provide LPDDR5X memory devices for integration into Intel's processors. This collaboration could be a substantial win for Samsung, given Intel's projection to distribute millions of Lunar Lake CPUs in the coming years. However, it's important to note that this information is based on a leak and has not been officially confirmed. Designed for ultra-portable laptops, the Lunar Lake-MX platform is expected to feature 16 GB or 32 GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory directly on the processor package. This on-package memory approach aims to minimize the platform's physical size while enhancing performance over traditional memory configurations. With Lunar Lake's exclusive support for on-package memory, Samsung's LPDDR5X-8533 products could significantly boost sales.

While Samsung is currently in the spotlight, it remains unclear if it will be the sole LPDDR5X memory provider for Lunar Lake. Intel's strategy involves selling processors with pre-validated memory, leaving the door open for potential validation of similar memory products from competitors like Micron and SK Hynix. Thanks to a new microarchitecture, Intel has promoted its Lunar Lake processors as a revolutionary leap in performance-per-watt efficiency. The processors are expected to utilize a multi-chipset design with Foveros technology, combining CPU and GPU chipsets, a system-on-chip tile, and dual memory packages. The CPU component is anticipated to include up to eight cores, a mix of four high-performance Lion Cove and four energy-efficient Skymont cores, alongside advanced graphics, cache, and AI acceleration capabilities. Apple's use of on-package memory in its M-series chips has set a precedent in the industry, and with Intel's Lunar Lake MX, this trend could extend across the thin-and-light laptop market. However, systems requiring more flexibility in terms of configuration, repair, and upgrades will likely continue to employ standard memory solutions like SODIMMs and/or the new CAMM2 modules that offer a balance of high performance and energy efficiency.

In a surprising turn of events, SK Hynix has hinted at the possibility of the Compression Attached Memory Module (CAMM) standard, initially designed for laptops, being introduced to desktop PCs. This revelation came from a comment made by an SK Hynix representative at the CES 2024 in Las Vegas for the Korean tech media ITSubIssub. According to the SK Hynix representative, the first implementation is underway, but there are no specific details. CAMM, an innovative memory standard developed by Dell in 2022, was certified to replace SO-DIMM as the official standard for laptop memory. However, the transition to desktop PCs could significantly disrupt the desktop memory market. The CAMM modules, unlike the vertical DRAM sticks currently in use, are horizontal and are screwed into a socket. This design change would necessitate a complete overhaul of the desktop motherboard layout.

The thin, flat design of the CAMM modules could also limit the number that can be installed on an ATX board. However, the desktop version of the standard CAMM2 was announced by JEDEC just a month ago. It is designed for DDR5 memory, but it is expected to become mainstream with the introduction of DDR6 around 2025. While CAMM allows for higher speeds and densities for mobile memory, its advantages for desktops over traditional memory sticks are yet to be fully understood. Although low-power CAMM modules could offer energy savings, this is typically more relevant for mobile devices than desktops. As we move towards DDR6 and DDR7, more information about CAMM for desktops will be needed to understand its potential benefits. JEDEC's official words on the new standard indicate that "DDR5 CAMM2s are intended for performance notebooks and mainstream desktops, while LPDDR5/5X CAMM2s target a broader range of notebooks and certain server market segments." So, we can expect to see CAMM2 in both desktops and some server applications.