The PC5 DDR5 main memory standard could enter the market by 2020, according to SK Hynix research fellow Kim Dong-Kyun. The first such memory standard will be DDR5-5200, which offers nearly double the bandwidth of DDR4-2666. "We are discussing several concepts of the post DDR5," he said. "One concept is to maintain the current trend of speeding up the data transmission, and another is to combine the DRAM technology with system-on-chip process technologies, such as CPU," he added, without offering any additional information. SK Hynix had in 2018 developed a working prototype of a 16-gigabit (2 GB) DDR5 DRAM chip ticking at 5200 MT/s, at 1.1 Volts. A 64-bit wide memory module made with these chips could offer bandwidth of 41.6 GB/s.

SK Hynix is developing its own innovations that could make its DDR5 chips more advanced than the competition without going off-standard. "We have developed a multi-phase synchronization technology that enables keeping the voltage during a high-speed operation in a chip at a low level by placing multiple phases within the IP circuit, so the power used on each phase is low but the speed is high when combined," Kim said. He also mentioned that development of the DDR6 PC memory standard is already underway, with the design goals of doubling bandwidth and densities over DDR5. Advancements in DRAM are propelled not just by the PC ecosystem, but also handhelds and self-driving car electronics.

Transcend Information Inc., a leading manufacturer of storage and multimedia products, is proud to announce the MTE220S PCIe M.2 Solid-State Drive. This SSD utilizes PCI Express Gen3 x4 interface and is compatible with NVM Express (NVMe) specifications. Utilizing this interface means never-before-seen transfer speeds of 3,500 MB/s read and 2,800 MB/s write are now a reality. Using 3D chips and packing into a M.2 2280 form factor, the MTE220S SSD is the must-have for gaming enthusiasts and high-end applications.

Transcend's MTE220S SSD comes equipped with DDR3 DRAM cache memory. This means that commonly used programs load much faster, and boot time is greatly reduced. Utilizing SLC caching, the MTE220S SSD can reach astonishing read/write speeds of 3,500 MB/s and 2,800 MB/s, respectively, and 4K Random performance is also significantly improved. In addition to speeds, reliability is also enhanced with the Low Density Parity Check code in place.

ASUS today announced that its Z390 motherboards will support a maximum DRAM capacity of 128GB via a UEFI BIOS update that's being rolled out from today on the ASUS support site. ASUS will bring this increased memory support to all Z390 motherboards via additional BIOS updates that will be available soon.

Previously, support for 128GB of DRAM was available only on high-end desktop (HEDT) motherboards with eight DIMM slots, such as the Intel X299 platform. Intel recently updated its memory reference code (MRC), enabling the memory controller in 9th Gen Intel Core processors to increase the supported capacity of each DIMM from 16GB to 32GB, resulting in a total system memory capacity of 128GB when populated with two DIMMs per channel (2DPC) on both memory channels. This increased memory support gives users more flexibility for running memory-intensive applications and tasks.

Intel today unveiled a killer new product with which it hopes to bring about as big a change to mobile computing as Ultrabook did some eight years ago. This effort is a combination of a new mobile computing form-factor codenamed "Project Athena," and an SoC at its heart, codenamed "Lakefield." Put simply, "Lakefield" is a 10 nm SoC that's integrated much in the same way as today's ARM SoCs, which combine IP from various vendors onto a single PoP (package-over-package) Foveros die.

The biggest innovation with "Lakefield" is its hybrid x86 multi-core CPU design, which combines four Atom-class low-power cores, with one Core-class "Sunny Cove" core, in a setup akin to ARM's big.LITTLE. Low-power processing loads are distributed to the smaller cores, while the big core is woken up to deal with heavy loads. The SoC also integrates a Gen 11 iGPU core, partial components to accelerate 802.11ax WLAN, 5G, an PoP DRAM and NVMe storage devices. The reference motherboard based on "Lakefield" is barely larger than an M.2 SSD!

Capellix is an innovation new RGB LED design by Corsair, which has significantly reduced size, power-draw, while offering increased brightness and durability, compared to conventional SMD LEDs. You can read all about these in our older article. The first product to implement Capellix is Corsair's upcoming flagship memory series, the 2019 Dominator Platinum RGB. These modules each feature 12 individually addressable Capellix aRGB LEDs, which take up significantly lower PCB real-estate than SMD LEDs on older generations of Corsair memory modules.

A silicone diffuser puts out light from these diodes through slits along the sides and top of the modules. The LEDs are fully compatible with Corsair iCUE software, in addition to pretty much any addressable-RGB software. The modules themselves feature hand-binned DRAM chips, cooled by die-cast, micro-arc oxidized anodized aluminium heatspreaders. The first of these could be out in February 2019.

TEAMGROUP is proudly announcing the T-FORCE has done to the apex again, work with world's Korean renown overcloker, SAFEDISK, by using the T-FORCE XTREEM DDR4 4500 MHz modules all the way grabbed the world record of SUPER PI 32m calculation, successfully beat all the powerful professional overclockers from HWBOT and all over the world. This excellent performance of T-FORCE XTREEM made the possibility of completion on SUPER PI 32m calculation within 4 minutes and 5 seconds which is unbelievably amazing!

SUPER PI is a significant DRAM module overclocking benching application, also a way to check the overall module specification stability. This time T-FORCE understands need to show the high performance and stability in front of all the users. Thus works with SAFEDISKset up the test environment including T-FORCE XTREEM DDR4 4500 MHz module, Intel Core i9 9900K "Coffee Lake Refresh" CPU and ASUS ROG Maximus IX Apex motherboard. Without a doubt, the world record has been posted at HWBOT and all over the public platform in front of everyone to be the witness of all this awesome performance record from T-FORCE module.

According to a report from DRAMeXchange, a division of market analytics firm TrendForce, contractor pricing of NAND flash products could drop some further 10% entering 2019 and throughout just the first quarter of the next year. Citing higher than expected but output from NAND manufacturers, who managed to ramp up their 64-bit 3D NAND ad higher-than-expected ratios, and with stagnating smartphone demand, channel quantities' increase will lead to dripping (if not cascading) pricing.

As for the trend in the SSD market, DRAMeXchange expects Client SSD contract prices to fall by nearly 10% in 1Q19, a great boon for customers. With global notebook shipments for 1Q19 estimated to decrease by over 15% QoQ, slowing demand for SSDs will lead to decreasing prices matching demand, despite the increasing SSD adoption rate in the PC market and the memory content upgrades. Long story short, enthusiasts: don't do any Christmas shopping for SSDs, barring some amazing deals that do pop up.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in the development of standards for the microelectronics industry, today announced the publication of an update to JESD235 High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) DRAM standard. HBM DRAM is used in Graphics, High Performance Computing, Server, Networking and Client applications where peak bandwidth, bandwidth per watt, and capacity per area are valued metrics to a solution's success in the market. The standard was developed and updated with support from leading GPU and CPU developers to extend the system bandwidth growth curve beyond levels supported by traditional discrete packaged memory. JESD235B is available for download from the JEDEC website.

JEDEC standard JESD235B for HBM leverages Wide I/O and TSV technologies to support densities up to 24 GB per device at speeds up to 307 GB/s. This bandwidth is delivered across a 1024-bit wide device interface that is divided into 8 independent channels on each DRAM stack. The standard can support 2-high, 4-high, 8-high, and 12-high TSV stacks of DRAM at full bandwidth to allow systems flexibility on capacity requirements from 1 GB - 24 GB per stack.

GeIL - Golden Emperor International Ltd. - one of the world's leading PC components and peripheral manufacturers today announced the new additions to their SUPER LUCE RGB SYNC Series DDR4 memory. The new modules are available in three capacities and speeds: 4133 MHz 16 GB (8 GB x2) CL19-19-19-39 1.40 V, 3600 MHz 16GB (8 GB x2) CL16-18-18-36 1.35 V, and 3200 MHz 16 GB (8 GB x2) CL14-14-14-34 1.35V

The 4133 MHz 16 GB (8 GB x2) CL19-19-19-39 1.40 V DDR4 kits can be the overclocker's new favorite with support for most ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI and ASROCK Z390 and Z370 motherboards as well as giving enthusiasts the room to push their systems to the limit without exception. The 3600 MHz 16GB (8 GB x2) CL16-18-18-36 1.35 V DDR4 kits meets the memory needs for any gaming system using the latest Intel platforms and is an excellent solution for first time overclockers. The 3200 MHz 16 GB (8GBx2) CL14-14-14-34 1.35 V DDR4 kits are compatible with both Intel and AMD AM4 platforms and feature a low latency design to enhance performance and offer the most affordable upgrade option for users.

The Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation has been conducting an anti-monopoly investigation of the global Dynamic RAM market. According to an interview of Wu Zenghou (bureau's head) in the Financial Times, this process has found "massive evidence" against the three companies (Samsung, Hynix, and Micron) that are responsible for the vast majority of this segment. "The anti-monopoly investigation into these three companies has made important progress", points out the investigator. On April these three companies were hit with a price-fixing suit on the same matter in the US, and this investigation seems to confirm those reports.

There is even an older precedent, as Samsung and Hynix were fined both by the US Department of Justice in 2005 and by the European Commission in 2010 on price-fixing allegations. The charges now are similar, and if the companies are found guilty, they could face fines of over $2.5 billion. Some analysts suggest this investigation could be part of the trade war between China and the US, with the former trying to get some leverage pushing the Chinese semiconductor company Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit as a bigger player on this market. One that, by the way, is being investigated on allegations of misappropriated trade secrets from Micron. Samsung and SK Hynix have accused China DRAM makers of industrial espionage, too.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, is launching Trident Z Royal series DDR4 RGB memory kits, featuring a patent-pending full-length crystalline light bar upon a polished heatspreader in gold or silver with stunning 8-zone RGB lighting. The patent of the crystalline design on PC components has been applied for across major countries. Available in high-speed specifications, the Trident Z Royal is first available from DDR4-3000MHz to DDR4-4600MHz at launch. With the perfect marriage of RGB lighting and speed, the Trident Z Royal is the ideal memory kit for any high-class system build.

Trident Z Royal is the latest addition to the Trident Z flagship family, featuring a crown jewel design. Meticulously crafted to display just the right amount of light refraction, the crystalline light bar scatters the RGB colors in a magnificent display of LED lighting. Complementing the patented high-class light bar design, polished aluminum heatspreaders of gold or silver colors cools the memory modules in the award-winning classic Trident Z tri-fin design. And to help maintain the pristine shine of the heatspreaders, each Trident Z Royal memory kit comes with a piece of microfiber cloth to let you wipe away fingerprints and dust.

SK Hynix announced that it has developed 16 Gb DDR5 DRAM, the industry's first DDR5 to meet the JEDEC standards. The same 1Ynm process technology used for the recently-developed 1Ynm 8Gb DDR4 DRAM was applied to the new DRAM, giving an industry-leading competitive edge for the Company.

DDR5 is a next-generation DRAM standard that offers ultra-high speed and high density with reduced power consumption as compared to DDR4, for use in data-intensive applications such as big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

Western Digital Corporation, a data infrastructure leader, today announced it is extending the breadth and depth of its data center portfolio into the rapidly evolving in-memory computing market segment. The new Ultrastar DC ME200 Memory Extension Drive is the company's first product that enables customers to better optimize in-memory system capacity/performance for running demanding applications that drive today's real-time analytics and business insights.

"Today's requirement for faster analytics, data processing, cloud services and high-performance computing (HPC) is increasing demand for in-memory computing across a variety of industries, including healthcare, telecommunications and IT, and retail," said Ashish Nadkarni, group vice president, IDC. "By expanding in-memory capacity, the Ultrastar memory drive helps alleviate the high cost of adding extra DRAM, as well as addresses the physical limitations of available DIMM slots, where scaling is either cost-prohibitive or nearly impossible."

SK Hynix Inc. announced that it has developed 1Ynm 8Gb (Gigabits) DDR4 (Double Data Rate 4) DRAM. The productivity of this product is increased by 20% and the power consumption reduced by more than 15%, compared to the previous generation, 1Xnm DRAM. It also supports a data transfer rate of up to 3,200Mbps, which is the fastest data processing speed in DDR4 interface. The Company adopted a '4-Phase Clocking' scheme, which doubles the clock signal to boost data transfer speed and stability.

SK Hynix also introduced its own 'Sense Amp. Control' technology to reduce power consumption and data errors. With this technology, the Company successfully enhanced the performance of the sense amplifier. SK Hynix improved the transistor structure to lower the possibility of data errors, a challenge that accompanies technology shrink. The Company also added a low-power power supply to the circuit to prevent unnecessary power consumption.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced that it has begun mass production of the industry's highest-capacity and first monolithic 12Gb low-power double data rate 4x (LPDDR4x) DRAM for mobile devices and applications. This latest generation of Micron's LPDDR4 memory brings key improvements in power consumption while maintaining the industry's fastest LPDDR4 clock speeds, thereby delivering advanced performance for next-generation mobile handsets and tablets. In addition, Micron's 12Gb LPDDR4x doubles memory capacity to offer the industry's highest-capacity monolithic LPDDR4 without increasing the footprint compared to the previous generation product.

The exponential increase in usage of compute and data-intensive mobile applications such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and 4K video has been accompanied with demands by mobile users to maximize battery life and performance and increase capacity. Next-generation mobile devices that integrate multiple high-resolution cameras and increasingly use AI for image optimization also require higher DRAM capacities to support these features.

As the industry transitions towards deployment of 5G mobile technology, the memory subsystem in mobile handsets will have to support these dramatically higher data rates and the associated processing of data in real-time. New applications built upon 5G technology will also be able to leverage the increased capabilities of the memory subsystem to enable new and immersive user experiences.

A DRAM market pricing watch report from DRAMeXchange, a division of Trendforce, has just outed a prediction for DRAM price drops towards 2019 and into the same year. The report points to already-decreased by 10.14% pricing (US$34.5 in 3Q18 to the current US$31) for 4GB PC DRAM modules in the market, relative to the previous quarter, as a sign for continued drops. 8 GB DRAM module pricing has declined by 10.29%, signaling an increased inventory of those parts.

The report also states that suppliers have just reached the inflection point for oversupply, despite continued efforts from manufacturers to artificially decrease manufacturing to keep a strain on demand. The report further states that "The ASP in the whole DRAM market is forecast to fall by as much as around 20% YoY in 2019, according to DRAMeXchange's latest analysis. After reaching peak profit in 3Q18, DRAM suppliers are now optimizing their costs so that they will have a soft landing in 2019 as prices are marked down every quarter."

The United States government, via the Department of Commerce, has banned all exports from national companies to China-based Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuits Ltd. The ban, citing "significant risk of becoming involved in activities that are contrary to the national security interests of the United States", demands that a license is required for "all exports, re-exports, and transfers of commodities, software and technology (...) to Jinhua." It then adds that these license applications will be reviewed - always - with a presumption of denial.

Solid-state drives are cheaper than ever, thanks to systematic decline in NAND flash prices owing both to oversupply and increases in densities. NAND flash prices have already declined by 50 percent over 2018, according to a DigiTimes report, and will continue to slide through 2019. ADATA chairman Simon Chen commented that NAND flash makers haven't slowed down capacity expansions, and 2019 could witness an even bigger drop in prices than 2018.

Major NAND flash makers such as IMFlash Technology, SK Hynix, Samsung, Western Digital, Toshiba, have already taped out their 96-layer 3D NAND flash products, which could enter volume production in the first half of 2019. This could impact prices of existing swelling inventories of products based on 64-layer NAND flash. In theory, the 96-layer chips introduce 50 percent increases in densities. Adoption of newer technologies such as QLC (4 bits per cell) will expand densities even further. The same report also projects that DRAM prices could largely remain flat throughout 2019. Most NAND flash makers also happen to make DRAM, and could balance their NAND flash losses with DRAM profits.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced several groundbreaking additions to its comprehensive semiconductor ecosystem that encompass next-generation technologies in foundry as well as NAND flash, SSD (solid state drive) and DRAM. Together, these developments mark a giant step forward for Samsung's semiconductor business.

"Samsung's technology leadership and product breadth are unparalleled," said JS Choi, President, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. "Bringing 7 nm EUV into production is an incredible achievement. Also, the announcements of SmartSSD and 256GB 3DS RDIMM represent performance and capacity breakthroughs that will continue to push compute boundaries. Together, these additions to Samsung's comprehensive technology ecosystem will power the next generation of datacenters, high-performance computing (HPC), enterprise, artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging applications."

As HyperX begins shipping Cloud Mix , its first Bluetooth-enabled gaming and lifestyle headset this month, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc. today announced that since its inception in 2002, it has shipped over 60 million memory modules, billions of bytes of memory. Chosen by OEMs, PC builders, overclockers, and the gaming community, HyperX has steadily grown as the largest independent gaming memory module manufacturer and performance leader. With this major milestone and the growth in sales of headsets, keyboards and mice, HyperX is projected to exceed $550 million in total revenue for branded products in 2018.

Since HyperX launched 16 years ago, it has increasingly expanded its product line and market reach. The HyperX brand is not only recognized for delivering high quality memory products, but also as a peripherals leader, providing gaming headsets, keyboards, mice, and mousepads to gamers across the globe. The HyperX Engineering Labs and engineering team is committed to developing technology to bring new performance memory products to the PC, mini-PC and notebook markets. HyperX provides a variety of memory solutions, including Predator DIMMs for high performance PC builds, FURY DIMMs for gamers building affordable PCs, and Impact SODIMMs for notebook updates and system builds.

Ukrainian PC enthusiast and software developer 1usmus today released DRAM Calculator for Ryzen version 1.4.0. This utility was formerly known as "Ryzen DRAM Calculator," which has since been voluntarily renamed by the author in the interest of avoiding any future trademark conflict with AMD, or giving users the impression that the software has been made by AMD. The change in name doesn't change the fact this could be your go-to app to figure out the best memory settings for your AMD Ryzen-powered machine.

PC enthusiasts usually only remember 4 or 5 DRAM timing settings besides DRAM clock and voltage, letting the motherboard BIOS figure out the rest of the stable values, which could often be looser than needed. DRAM Calculator for Ryzen figures out nearly every under-the-hood timing, voltage, clock-speed, and other setting needed to make the most out of your memory overclock. You can also make the app work out "safe," "stable," and "extreme" variations of its own calculations. Version 1.4.0 isn't just a name-change for the application. It introduces a large number of critical updates to the app that improve accuracy and functionality.

DOWNLOAD: DRAM Calculator for Ryzen v1.4.0The change-log follows.

32-gigabyte DDR4 UDIMMs are a reality. Samsung recently announced the development of a 32 GB DDR4 dual-rank UDIMM, using higher density DRAM chips. Those chips, however, are unlikely to be available anytime soon, compounded by Samsung's reported scumbaggery in the making. In the midst of all this, motherboard major ASUS designed its own non-JEDEC UDIMM standard, called "Double Capacity DIMM" or DC DIMM, with the likes of G.Skill and Zadak designing the first models. The utility of these modules is to max out the CPU memory controller's limit despite having fewer memory slots on the motherboard. Possible use-cases include LGA1151 mini-ITX motherboards with just one slot per memory channel (2 slots in all), or certain LGA2066 boards with just four slots (one slot per channel).

There is no word on the memory chip configuration modules, but it's highly likely they are dual-rank. The first DDR4 DC modules could be 32 GB, letting you max out the memory controller limit of 8th gen and 9th gen Core processors with just two modules. ASUS is heavily marketing this standard with its upcoming motherboards based on Intel's Z390 Express chipset, so it remains to be seen if other ASUS motherboards (or other motherboards in general) support the standard. Ironically, the Zadak-made module shown in ASUS marketing materials use DRAM chips made by Samsung.

In a bid to head off investor worries of a potential downturn, Samsung is looking to tighten their belts in regards to the manufacturing of DRAM. In particular, this move is preempted by the expectation of DRAM bit growth to be less than 20% year-over-year, with bit growth being the key measurement for gauging market demand based on the amount of memory produced. Considering the semiconductor industry is known for its up and down cycles, Samsung's preemptive move could stabilize or even drive up the cost of memory coming out of not just them but Micron and SK Hynix as well. This would help keep their profits rolling in, just in case a downturn in demand does take place, but it also means PC enthusiasts will have to deal with memory prices remaining roughly the same or possibly climb higher going forward.

Anthea Lai, an analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, in Hong Kong made note that "If Samsung does cut its DRAM bit growth, it shows the company is happy with the current oligopoly market structure." Elaborating further, he said that "It prefers keeping supply tight and prices high, rather than taking market share and risking lower prices, therefore chances for DRAM prices to stay strong is higher."

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND flash products, today launched the ADATA IUSP33F PCIe ball grid array (BGA) solid state drive (SSD). The SSD sports a form factor that is 80 percent more compact than M.2 2242 SSDs. Combined with a PCIe Gen3x2 interface and 3D Flash memory for excellent performance and durability, the IUSP33F is an ideal solution for slim-form-factor tablets, notebooks, hybrids, mini-PCs, thin clients, and wearables.

"We are thrilled to be introducing the new IUSP33F SSD, a compact solution that will enable next-generation tablets, ultrabooks, and other slim devices, but without compromising on performance and reliability," said Hedi Huang, Sales Directorof ADATA. "But the versatility of the IUSP33F goes beyond just these applications, and are also well-suited for new emerging applications in areas such as robotics, augmented and virtual reality, and automotive.

Samsung is ready with a 32 GB DDR4 UDIMM (unbuffered DIMMs) targeted at desktops. Dual-channel kits with these modules could let you max out the 64 GB memory limit of today's mainstream desktop processors, and 128 GB limits of Intel's Core X HEDT processors, with quad-channel kits. AMD's Ryzen Threadripper processors are advertised to support up to 2 TB of memory (including ECC support), so it should finally be possible to pack up to 256 GB of memory on Threadripper-powered machines.

The new M378A4G43MB1-CTD DDR4 UDIMM from Samsung is, unsurprisingly, a dual-rank module (x8 / x16 Organization or up to 2 ranks per DIMM and 2DPC configuration). It ticks at DDR4-2666 at a module voltage of 1.2 V. The module itself won't be much to look at, with a green PCB and bare-naked DRAM chips. It is is currently sampling to PC OEMs. It could also be possible for more popular memory manufacturers to get in touch with Samsung for the DRAM chips that make up this module. A single-rank variant of this module could finally make it possible for AMD Ryzen AM4 machines to have 32 GB of dual-channel memory at acceptably high memory clocks.