Samsung’s New DDR4 with TSV Gives a Boost to Memory Solutions for Data Centers and Servers

Current technology trends, including the ever-growing mobile traffic, high-quality content, data analyses and IoT platforms all add to the workload of today’s data centers and servers. As such, faster and more reliable memory solutions with heavy-duty capacities are a necessity.

Chip stacking for larger capacities does have clear benefits. However, with conventional packaging techniques that use wire bonding, chip stacks are prone to lag in speed—speed that is especially essential for enterprise servers that handle massive amounts of data. In turn, dies can only be stacked so high, further limiting the chip package capacity.

Through silicon via (TSV) is an advanced chip packaging technology that vertically connects DRAM chip dies using electrodes that penetrate the microns-thick dies through microscopic holes.
The technology marks a breakthrough from traditional wire bonding as it allows for all of the dies in a chip package to maintain their optimum performance which makes higher die stacks possible. A smaller footprint of the physical chip package is an additional bonus.

Samsung announced its TSV DDR4 DRAM in 128GB RDIMM modules for the first time in the industry, which will bring new heights to memory solutions for servers and data centers.

The three most important benefits of this new technology include:

1. Largest Capacity: Samsung’s 128GB TSV DDR4 module doubles the largest capacity of previous DRAM for enterprise servers while continuing to meet the requirements for high speed and reliability.
2. Faster Speeds: By combining TSV technology with 8Gb DRAM die, Samsung’s new TSV DDR4 RDIMM is able to pack in 128GB, meeting the needs of today’s enterprise servers with speeds of up to 2,667 megabits per second (Mbps) and 3,200Mbps. This suggests the possibility of accelerated adoption of TSV in the market, with opportunities for expanded applications in high bandwidth memory (HBM) and consumer products in the future.
3. Better Efficiency: The design of the 128GB TSV DDR4 module is also incredibly innovative. Traditional wire-bond dies are packaged together with a data buffer chip, which regulate the input/output information passing through each DRAM. Samsung’s new 128GB TSV DDR4 module embeds data buffer functions within the master chip in each chip package, producing better performance in a more energy-efficient product. Being manufactured with Samsung’s state-of-the-art 20-nanometer process technology adds to improved performance and energy efficiency, as well. As a result, the 128GB TSV DDR4 reduces the power consumption by half when compared to the previous highest capacity DRAM modules (64GB LRDIMM).

Read more:

Samsung Starts Mass Producing Industry’s First 128-Gigabyte DDR4 Modules for Enterprise Servers