Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun sampling the industry’s first 16-gigabit (Gb) Graphics Double Data Rate 6 (GDDR6) DRAM featuring 24-gigabit-per-second (Gbps) processing speeds. Built on Samsung’s third-generation 10-nanometer-class (1z)¹ process using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology, the new memory is designed to significantly advance the graphics performance for next-generation graphics cards (Video Graphics Arrays), laptops and game consoles, as well as artificial intelligence-based applications and high-performance computing (HPC) systems.

“The explosion of data now being driven by AI and the metaverse is pushing the need for greater graphics capabilities that can process massive data sets simultaneously, at extremely high speeds,” said Daniel Lee, Executive Vice President of the Memory Product Planning Team at Samsung Electronics. “With our industry-first 24Gbps GDDR6 now sampling, we look forward to validating the graphics DRAM on next-generation GPU platforms to bring it to market in time to meet an onslaught of new demand.”

Engineered with an innovative circuit design and a highly advanced insulating material (High-K Metal Gate; HKMG) that minimizes current leakage, Samsung’s 24Gbps GDDR6 will deliver 30% faster speeds compared to the previous 18Gbps product. When integrated into a premium graphics card, the GDDR6 DRAM can transfer up to 1.1-terabytes (TB) of data, or about 275 Full HD movies, in just one second.

Designed to be fully compliant with JEDEC specifications, Samsung’s GDDR6 DRAM will be compatible across all GPU designs, facilitating broad market adoption in a wide array of graphics solutions.

Samsung’s new GDDR6 lineup will also feature low-power options that help extend the battery life of laptops. Utilizing dynamic voltage switching (DVS) technology which adjusts the operating voltage depending on performance requirements, Samsung will provide 20Gbps and 16Gbps versions with approximately 20% higher power efficiency at 1.1V, compared to the 1.35V GDDR6 industry standard.

Graphics DRAM is increasingly being sought for use beyond PCs, laptops and game consoles, extending into other graphics-intensive applications like HPC, autonomous driving and electric cars. Addressing these emerging markets, Samsung’s GDDR6 will enable seamless 4K and 8K video playback, while supporting demanding AI accelerator workloads.

Samsung continues to lead the graphics DRAM market globally and forecasts that the high-performance graphics portion will see double-digit growth annually in the coming years.

With customer verifications starting this month, Samsung plans to commercialize its 24Gbps GDDR6 DRAM in line with GPU platform launches, therein accelerating graphics innovation throughout the high-speed computing market.

¹ Samsung’s first-generation 10nm-class DRAM is termed 1x, followed by 1y (second-generation), 1z (third-generation), 1a (fourth-generation) and so on.

“Samsung is the only semiconductor company with logic and memory capabilities and the expertise to incorporate HKMG cutting-edge logic technology into memory product development,” said Young-Soo Sohn, Vice President of the DRAM Memory Planning/Enabling Group at Samsung Electronics. “By bringing this type of process innovation to DRAM manufacturing, we are able to offer our customers high-performance, yet energy-efficient memory solutions to power the computers needed for medical research, financial markets, autonomous driving, smart cities and beyond.”

“As the amount of data to be moved, stored and processed increases exponentially, the transition to DDR5 comes at a critical inflection point for cloud datacenters, networks and edge deployments,” said Carolyn Duran, Vice President and GM of Memory and IO Technology at Intel. “Intel’s engineering teams closely partner with memory leaders like Samsung to deliver fast, power-efficient DDR5 memory that is performance-optimized and compatible with our upcoming Intel Xeon Scalable processors, code-named Sapphire Rapids.”

Samsung’s DDR5 will utilize highly advanced HKMG technology that has been traditionally used in logic semiconductors. With continued scaling down of DRAM structures, the insulation layer has thinned, leading to a higher leakage current. By replacing the insulator with HKMG material, Samsung’s DDR5 will be able to reduce the leakage and reach new heights in performance. This new memory will also use approximately 13% less power, making it especially suitable for datacenters where energy efficiency is becoming increasingly critical.

The HKMG process was adopted in Samsung’s GDDR6 memory in 2018 for the first time in the industry. By expanding its use in DDR5, Samsung is further solidifying its leadership in next-generation DRAM technology.

Leveraging through-silicon via (TSV) technology, Samsung’s DDR5 stacks eight layers of 16Gb DRAM chips to offer the largest capacity of 512GB. TSV was first utilized in DRAM in 2014 when Samsung introduced server modules with capacities up to 256GB.

Samsung is currently sampling different variations of its DDR5 memory product family to customers for verification and, ultimately, certification with their leading-edge products to accelerate AI/ML, exascale computing, analytics, networking, and other data-intensive workloads.