Samsung has unveiled a brand new RAM module that reveals the potential of DDR5 reminiscence by way of pace and capability. The 512GB DDR5 module is the primary to make use of Excessive-Okay Steel Gate (HKMG) tech, delivering 7,200 Mbps speeds — over double that of DDR4, Samsung mentioned. Proper now, it is geared toward data-hungry supercomputing, AI and machine studying capabilities, however DDR5 will finally discover its technique to common PCs, boosting gaming and different functions.
Samsung first used HKMG tech in 2018 with GDDR6 chips utilized in GPUs. Developed by Intel, it makes use of hafnium as an alternative of silicon, with metals changing the conventional polysilicon gate electrodes. All of that enables for increased chip densities, whereas decreasing present leakage.
Every chip makes use of eight layers of 16Gb DRAM chips for a capability of 128Gb, or 16GB. As such, Samsung would wish 32 of these to make a 512GB RAM module. On prime of the upper speeds and capability, Samsung mentioned that the chip makes use of 13 p.c much less energy than non-HKMG modules — best for knowledge facilities, however not so unhealthy for normal PCs, both.
With 7,200 Mbps speeds, Samsung’s newest module would ship round 57.6 GB/s switch speeds on a single channel. In Samsung’s press launch, Intel famous that the reminiscence could be appropriate with its next-gen “Sapphire Rapids” Xeon Scalable processors. That structure will use an eight-channel DDR5 reminiscence controller, so we may see multi-terabyte reminiscence configurations with reminiscence switch speeds as excessive as 460 GB/s. In the meantime, the primary shopper PCs may arrive in 2022 when AMD unveils its Zen 4 platform, which is rumored to assist DDR5.
