Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced it has successfully completed verification of the industry’s fastest 10.7 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) Low Power Double Data Rate 5X (LPDDR5X) DRAM for use on MediaTek’s next-generation Dimensity platform.

The 10.7Gbps operation speed verification was carried out using Samsung’s LPDDR5X 16-gigabyte (GB) package on MediaTek’s upcoming flagship Dimensity 9400 System on Chip (SoC), scheduled to be released in the second half of this year. The two companies have closely collaborated to complete the verification within just three months.

Samsung’s 10.7Gbps LPDDR5X delivers more than 25% improved power consumption and performance compared to the previous generation. This allows longer battery life for mobile devices and enhanced on-device AI performance, boosting the speed of AI features, such as voice-text generation, without requiring server or cloud access.

“Through our strategic cooperation with MediaTek, Samsung has verified the industry’s fastest LPDDR5X DRAM that is poised to lead the AI smartphone market,” said YongCheol Bae, Executive Vice President of Memory Product Planning at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will continue to innovate through active collaboration with customers and provide optimum solutions for the on-device AI era.”

“Working together with Samsung Electronics has made it possible for MediaTek’s next-generation Dimensity chipset to become the world’s first to be validated at LPDDR5X operating speeds up to 10.7Gbps, enabling upcoming devices to deliver AI functionality and mobile performance at a level we’ve never seen before,” said JC Hsu, Corporate Senior Vice President at MediaTek. “This updated architecture will make it easier for developers and users to leverage more AI capabilities and take advantage of more features with less impact on battery life.”

Amid the expansion of the on-device AI market, especially for AI smartphones, energy-efficient, high-performance LPDDR DRAM solutions are becoming increasingly important. Through the validation with MediaTek, Samsung is solidifying its technological leadership in the low-power, high-performance DRAM market and is expected to expand the application beyond mobile to servers, PCs and automotive devices.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has developed the industry’s first LPDDR5X DRAM supporting the industry’s highest performance of up to 10.7 gigabits-per-second (Gbps).

Leveraging 12 nanometer (nm)-class process technology, Samsung has achieved the smallest chip size among existing LPDDRs, solidifying its technological leadership in the low-power DRAM market.

“As demand for low-power, high-performance memory increases, LPDDR DRAM is expected to expand its applications from mainly mobile to other areas that traditionally require higher performance and reliability such as PCs, accelerators, servers and automobiles,” said YongCheol Bae, Executive Vice President of Memory Product Planning of the Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will continue to innovate and deliver optimized products for the upcoming on-device AI era through close collaboration with customers.”

With the surge in AI applications, on-device AI, which enables direct processing on devices, is becoming increasingly crucial, underscoring the need for low-power, high-performance LPDDR memory.

Samsung’s 10.7Gbps LPDDR5X not only improves performance by more than 25% and capacity by more than 30%, compared to the previous generation, but also expands the single package capacity of mobile DRAM up to 32-gigabytes (GB), making it an optimal solution for the on-device AI era that requires high-performance, high-capacity and low-power memory.

In particular, the LPDDR5X incorporates specialized power-saving technologies such as optimized power variation that adjusts power according to workload and expanded low-power mode intervals which extend energy-saving periods. These improvements enhance power efficiency by 25% over the previous generation, enabling mobile devices to provide longer battery life and allowing servers to minimize total cost of ownership (TCO) by lowering energy usage when processing data.

Mass production of the 10.7Gbps LPDDR5X is scheduled to begin by the second half of the year, following verification with mobile application processor (AP) and mobile device providers.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced memory technology, today held its annual Memory Tech Day, showcasing industry-first innovations and new memory products to accelerate technological advancements across future applications — including the cloud, edge devices and automotive vehicles.

Attended by about 600 customers, partners and industry experts, the event served as a platform for Samsung executives to expand on the company’s vision for “Memory Reimagined,” covering long-term plans to continue its memory technology leadership, outlook on market trends and sustainability goals. The company also presented new product innovations such as the HBM3E Shinebolt, LPDDR5X CAMM2 and Detachable AutoSSD.

Jung-Bae Lee, President and Head of Memory Business at Samsung Electronics, used his keynote address to expand on how Samsung will overcome the challenges of the hyperscale era through innovations in new transistor structures and materials. For example, Samsung is currently preparing new 3D structures for sub-10-nanometer (nm) DRAM, allowing larger single-chip capacities that can exceed 100 gigabits (Gb). Following its 12nm-class DRAM that began mass production in May, 2023, Samsung is working on its next-generation 11nm-class DRAM, which is set to offer the industry’s highest density.

NAND flash breakthroughs that will shrink cell sizes and refine channel hole etching techniques are also in development, with the goal of ushering in 1,000-layer vertical NAND (V-NAND). Development is on track for Samsung’s ninth-generation V-NAND to provide the industry’s highest layer count based on a double-stack structure. The company has secured a functional chip for the new V-NAND and plans to start mass production early next year.

“The new era of hyperscale AI has brought the industry to a crossroads where innovation and opportunity intersect, presenting a time with potential for great leaps forward, despite the challenges,” said Lee. “Through endless imagination and relentless perseverance, we will continue our market leadership by driving innovation and collaborating with customers and partners to deliver solutions that expand possibilities.”

Introducing HBM3E ‘Shinebolt’

Today’s cloud systems are evolving to optimize compute resources, which require high-performance memory to handle high capacity, bandwidth and virtual storage capabilities. Building on Samsung’s expertise in commercializing the industry’s first HBM2 and opening the HBM market for high-performance computing (HPC) in 2016, the company today revealed its next-generation HBM3E DRAM, named Shinebolt.

Samsung’s Shinebolt will power next-generation AI applications, improving total cost of ownership (TCO) and speeding up AI-model training and inference in the data center. The HBM3E boasts an impressive speed of 9.8 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) per pin speed, meaning it can achieve transfer rates exceeding up to more than 1.2 terabytes-per-second (TBps).

In order to enable higher layer stacks and improve thermal characteristics, Samsung has optimized its non-conductive film (NCF) technology to eliminate gaps between chip layers and maximize thermal conductivity.

Samsung’s 8H and 12H HBM3 products are currently in mass production and samples for Shinebolt are shipping to customers. Leaning into its strength as a total semiconductor solutions provider, the company also plans to offer a custom turnkey service that combines next-generation HBM, advanced packaging technologies and foundry offerings together.

Other products highlighted at the event include the 32Gb DDR5 DRAM with the industry’s highest capacity, the industry’s first 32Gbps GDDR7 and the petabyte-scale PBSSD, which offers a significant boost to storage capabilities for server applications.

Redefining Edge Devices Through Powerful Form Factors

In order to process data-intensive tasks, today’s AI technologies are moving toward a hybrid model that allocates and distributes workload among cloud and edge devices. Accordingly, Samsung introduced a range of memory solutions that support high-performance, high-capacity, low-power and small form factors at the edge.

In addition to the industry’s first 7.5Gbps LPDDR5X CAMM2¹ — which is expected to be a true game changer in the next-generation PC and laptop DRAM market — the company also showcased its 9.6Gbps LPDDR5X DRAM, LLW² DRAM specialized for on-device AI, next-generation Universal Flash Storage (UFS), and the high-capacity Quad-Level Cell (QLC) SSD BM9C1 for PCs.

Paving the Road for Automotive Memory Solutions Leadership

With advancements in autonomous driving solutions, market demand is also rising for high-bandwidth, high-capacity DRAM and Shared SSDs, which share data with multiple System on Chips (SoCs).  Samsung presented its Detachable AutoSSD that allows data access from a single SSD to multiple SoCs through virtual storage.

The Detachable AutoSSD supports sequential read speed of up to 6,500 megabytes-per-second (MBps) with 4TB of capacity. As it comes in a detachable form factor, the SSD makes upgrades and adjustments easier for vehicle users and manufacturers. Samsung also displayed automotive memory solutions such as high-bandwidth GDDR7 and LPDDR5X with a more compact package size.

Technology That Makes Technology Sustainable

As part of its commitment to minimizing environmental impact, Samsung underscored a variety of innovations within its semiconductor operations that will contribute to increased energy efficiency for customers and consumers.

The company plans to secure ultra-low-power memory technologies that can decrease power consumption in data centers, PCs and mobile devices, while using recycled materials in portable SSD products to reduce its carbon footprint. Samsung’s next-generation solutions, such as the PBSSD, will also help reduce energy usage for server systems as they maximize space efficiency and rack capacity.

While collaborating with stakeholders across the semiconductor value chain, including customers and partners, Samsung’s semiconductor business will continue to play an active role in tackling global climate issues through its sustainability initiative, “technology that makes technology sustainable.”

To learn more about Samsung Semiconductor’s solutions and Samsung Memory Tech Day 2023, please visit: https://semiconductor.samsung.com/events/techday-memory-2023/. The recap of the event will be posted at a later date.

¹ CAMM: Compression Attached Memory Module.
² LLW: Low Latency Wide I/O.

Samsung Electronics: Revolutionizing the Road Ahead

Aligning automotive innovations from all of its semiconductor business units for the first time, Samsung Electronics underscores the symbiotic potential among its diverse offerings across memory, system LSI, foundry and LED technologies. This unification solidifies Samsung’s leading position as an all-encompassing mobility solutions provider.

“IAA MOBILITY 2023 serves as an unparalleled platform for us to demonstrate the collective strength and commitment of our individual businesses, built to revolutionize the automotive industry through our expansive suite of semiconductor technologies,” said Dermot Ryan, President of Device Solutions Europe, Samsung Electronics. “Our shared vision is to collaboratively craft safer, more sustainable and profoundly interconnected automotive experiences for customers and communities worldwide.”

Pioneering Memory Advancements for Future Mobility

With future vehicles demanding advanced computing and storage capabilities, Samsung’s proven memory technologies emerge as a mainstay in accelerating data-driven mobility. At IAA MOBILITY 2023, Samsung will highlight its full lineup of memory solutions finely tuned for forthcoming automotive applications. These include LPDDR5X,² GDDR7,³ AutoSSD and UFS 3.1⁴ products that offer high-performance and high-capacity in areas such as infotainment and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) — all with certified auto-grade reliability. Building upon its robust automotive portfolio and extensive ecosystem partnerships, Samsung aims to become the largest automotive memory provider by 2025, empowering global customers to achieve fully connected mobility experiences.

Elevating the In-Car Experience With System LSI Innovations

As the automotive landscape shifts toward electrification and digitalization, in-car entertainment and safety ascend as defining attributes of next-generation vehicles. During IAA MOBILITY 2023, Samsung will present a tailored processor and sensor portfolio designed to address these evolving demands. Samsung’s Exynos Auto V920 processor, optimized for premium in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems, enables smooth playback of graphics-rich videos and games on multiple displays. Meanwhile, Samsung’s ISOCELL Auto sensors provide an exhaustive 360-degree car vision from front- (ISOCELL Auto 1H1) to rear- and surround-views (ISOCELL Auto 4AC), ensuring safety for both drivers and passengers. Extending safety features to the car interior, Samsung will demonstrate in-cabin sensor technologies primed for driver and occupant monitoring systems, capable of detecting and alerting potentially unsafe driver conditions like drowsiness, fatigue and distraction.

Advancing Automotive Semiconductor Frontiers With Foundry Solutions

In tune with the burgeoning automotive semiconductor market, Samsung’s Foundry Business has strategically honed its focus on automotive innovation and manufacturing excellence. At IAA MOBILITY 2023, the company will present its latest automotive design solutions, spanning system-on-chips (SoCs) for IVI and ADAS, power management ICs⁵ (PMICs) and battery management ICs (BMICs) as well as automotive microcontrollers (MCUs), all featuring the latest of Samsung Foundry’s technologies. Samsung will also highlight its automotive process technology roadmap, targeting mass production readiness of its four-nanometer (nm) process (SF4A⁶) by 2025 and its 2nm process (SF2A⁷) by 2026. Augmenting this initiative, Samsung Foundry is fortifying its intellectual property (IP) portfolio across analog, memory interface, high-speed interface, security and die to die (D2D) as well as bolstering its design infrastructure.

Next-Gen LED Technologies for the Vehicles of Tomorrow

Samsung will also display its advanced and highly customizable LED lighting solutions ideal for future electric and autonomous vehicles. The company’s PixCell LED⁸ represents an intelligent adaptive driving beam (ADB) innovation that empowers car manufacturers to create smaller lamps with precise and selective lighting control. Achieving Full HD resolution on a compact 0.25-inch display, Samsung’s next-gen Micro LED technology is ideally suited for ultra-high-resolution head-up displays (HUDs) while enabling driver information viewing through augmented reality (AR) glasses. Its Mini LED technology, an evolutionary vehicle-to-everything (V2X) solution, will unlock intricate animated signal effects, enhancing communication with other vehicles and pedestrians.

Samsung Display: OLEDs To Enhance the Automobile Experience

Samsung Display is exhibiting at IAA Mobility 2023, making its debut at an auto show for the first time ever, highlighting its display leadership with a unique exhibition that allows visitors to experience the many advantages of OLED technology. This ties in with the company’s intention to become a leading provider of OLED displays on next-generation automobile applications as the industry transitions away from LCDs.

Visitors to the Samsung Display booth will be able to experience the Safe Driving Center, where they can compare the difference between OLEDs and LCDs. Participants will discover that because OLEDs can portray True Black (Certified by VESA), they can significantly enhance driver visibility — and therefore safety — in dark environments.

The booth will also showcase OLEDs’ low power consumption, owing to OLED displays only lighting up pixels where the actual color appears, unlike LCDs. Of course, this characteristic is becoming ever more important in a world where electric vehicles (EVs) continue to grow in popularity. Additionally, visitors can explore how OLED technology enhances the interior of the vehicle. Since OLEDs can be bent and curved to match the car’s interior, and are lighter and thinner than LCDs, they allow for much greater design flexibility.

In the Next Mobility Projects space, visitors can get a glimpse of future OLED displays in a variety of form factors, such as the Flex S, a multi-foldable display that folds into an S shape with one side of the device inward and the other outward. It can be carried like a smartphone, but then expanded to 12.4 inches and used as the car dashboard. Other innovative products on display include a rollable display that expands more than five times on the vertical axis for rear seat entertainment (RSE) systems in the backseat, as well as a slidable display that expands the screen on both sides.

Samsung SDI: Cutting-Edge Battery Solutions for Next-Gen Electric Vehicles

Samsung SDI is making its sixth IAA appearance at IAA MOBILITY 2023, and the battery maker is poised to unveil “super gap”⁹ battery solutions for future EVs. The company is also making engagement with top R&D talent from Europe a priority.

Visitors to Samsung SDI’s booth will have a chance to see the company’s technological highlights in the PRiMX¹⁰ Zone, with the theme of “PRiMX, Experience the Best.” The zone will showcase a next-generation lineup of products including the all-solid-state battery, 46-phi cylindrical battery, nickel manganese (NMX) battery and lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) battery, along with premium-segment solutions. In the ESG¹¹ Zone, Samsung SDI will present the company’s ongoing initiatives for a sustainable future under the long-term vision of “To make the world sustainable through our innovative technology.”

To cater to varying needs for mass-market electric cars, Samsung SDI is also unveiling cobalt-free battery solutions like NMX and LMFP as a strategic edge ensuring both safety and cost-effectiveness. Also on display is a new form factor, where cathode and anode terminals are re-positioned to the side, enabling maximum space efficiency and enhanced performance and safety.

In attendance at IAA MOBILITY 2023 will be Samsung SDI President and CEO Yoon-ho Choi, who will meet with major European customers. Choi will also make an appearance at the Tech & Career (T&C) Forum, SDI’s career fair that introduces its technological prowess to the industry and allows the company to engage with prospective employees. The Forum is being held in Munich for the first time, after being held in Seoul last month. It took place twice in Seoul and New York last year.

“Home to global automotive industry players, including both carmakers and parts makers, Europe is a crucial market that will lead the future EV industry,” said Choi. “Using our unrivaled technologies, we will continually strive to provide our key European customers with products that feature the highest levels of safety and quality.”

¹ The International Motor Show Germany, or Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung (IAA) in German, is one of the world’s largest mobility trade fairs. It consists of two separate fairs: IAA MOBILITY and IAA TRANSPORTATION. IAA MOBILITY focuses on the latest developments in passenger vehicles, motorcycles and bikes.
² LPDDR5X: Low Power Double Data Rate 5X.
³ GDDR7: Graphics Double Data Rate 7.
⁴ UFS 3.1: Universal Flash Storage 3.1.
⁵ IC: Integrated Circuit.
⁶ SF4A: Samsung Foundry 4nm Automotive.
⁷ SF2A: Samsung Foundry 2nm Automotive.
⁸ The PixCell LED is a super-compact solution that uses sharp precision to deliver enhanced visibility for safer driving at night and in poor weather conditions.
⁹ Super gap: a wide lead that a market leader has over its competitors.
¹⁰ In 2021, Samsung SDI launched the battery brand PRiMX: Prime Battery for Maximum Experience.
¹¹ ESG: Environmental, Social and Governance.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that its latest LPDDR5X DRAM with the industry’s fastest speed of 8.5 gigabits per second (Gbps) was validated for use on Snapdragon^® mobile platforms. By optimizing a high-speed signal environment between application processor and memory, Samsung has surpassed the previous maximum speed of 7.5Gbps achieved in March, reaffirming its leadership in the memory market.

As a global leader in the mobile DRAM market for more than a decade, Samsung has been driving mainstream adoption of high-end smartphones, enabling many more consumers to experience powerful computing performance on their mobile devices.

Thanks to its low-power and high-performance characteristics, LPDDR DRAM is quickly becoming pervasive in modern computing systems, expanding beyond smartphones and into PCs, high-performance computing (HPC), servers and automobiles, where it has enjoyed robust growth in the last few years.

Recently, LPDDR DRAM has seen especially high demand from the PC market, where its ability to combine high performance and low-power consumption in a small form factor is helping PC makers build smaller, lighter and more powerful laptops.

LPDDR memory is also an increasingly important component in modern vehicles. As more and more data is generated through autonomous driving features, high-bandwidth memory like LPDDR DRAM is needed to process massive amounts of vehicle data at much faster speeds.

For data centers and edge servers, LPDDR DRAM’s low-power characteristics can help reduce power consumption levels, resulting in an improved total cost of ownership (TCO) for data center managers, while cutting down on heat and carbon emissions to ultimately lower their impact on climate change.

As the need for faster, smaller and more power-efficient memory increases across various fields, LPDDR DRAM is expected to also extend its presence in emerging markets driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and the metaverse.

“The joint validation of 8.5Gbps LPDDR5X DRAM has enabled us to accelerate market-wide availability of this high-speed memory interface by more than a year, which is a tremendous accomplishment made possible through our long-standing collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies,” said Daniel Lee, Executive Vice President of the Memory Product Planning Team at Samsung Electronics. “As LPDDR memory continues to broaden its usage beyond smartphones into AI and data center applications, strong collaboration between memory and SoC vendors is becoming all the more important. Samsung will continue to actively engage with innovators like Qualcomm Technologies to enhance ecosystem readiness for future LPDDR standards.”

“At Qualcomm Technologies, we strive to be at the forefront of enabling and adopting the latest memory specifications on our Snapdragon mobile platforms. We’re the first in the mobile industry to enable the latest LPDDR5X at 8.5Gbps on Snapdragon mobile platforms, which will enhance user experiences with new features and improved performance for mobile, gaming, camera and AI applications,” said Ziad Asghar, Vice President of Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. has validated Samsung’s 14-nanometer (nm) based 16-gigabit (Gb) Low Power Double Data Rate 5X (LPDDR5X) DRAM for use on Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon^® mobile platforms.

Since developing the industry’s first 14nm-based LPDDR5X DRAM last November, Samsung has worked closely with Qualcomm Technologies to optimize its 7.5 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) LPDDR5X for use with Snapdragon mobile platforms. Delivering about 1.2 times faster speed than the 6.4Gbps LPDDR5 deployed in today’s premium smartphones, Samsung’s LPDDR5X is expected to boost the performance of ultra-high-resolution video recording as well as AI features such as voice recognition, image recognition and natural language processing in next-generation smartphones. Furthermore, by adopting advanced circuit designs as well as dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS), LPDDR5X power consumption can be reduced by approximately 20%.

“The successful validation of our LPDDR5X solution for Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon mobile platforms is a testament to our leadership in DRAM technology,” said Jinman Han, Corporate Executive Vice President and Head of Memory Global Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “We expect applications for this high-performance, low-power memory to extend beyond smartphones into the data center, PC and automotive, enabling more devices and systems to run with greater efficiency.”

“Qualcomm Technologies is an industry leader in enabling and adopting the latest LPDDR DRAM specifications. Enablement of LPDDR5X on Snapdragon platforms will enhance user experiences with new features and improved performance for gaming, camera and applications using our latest AI Engine across various Qualcomm Technologies’ product lines,” said Ziad Asghar, Vice President of Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

To better accommodate the increasing demand for premium DRAM solutions, Samsung will continually pursue the development of low-power DRAM products that deliver greater performance and even higher capacities in support of a growing array of next-generation systems.

“In recent years, hyperconnected market segments such as AI, augmented reality (AR) and the metaverse, which rely on extremely fast large-scale data processing, have been rapidly expanding,” said SangJoon Hwang, Senior Vice President and Head of the DRAM Design Team at Samsung Electronics. “Our LPDDR5X will broaden the use of high-performance, low-power memory beyond smartphones and bring new capabilities to AI-based edge applications like servers and even automobiles.”

Samsung’s LPDDR5X is a next-generation mobile DRAM designed to significantly boost speed, capacity and power savings for future 5G applications. In 2018, Samsung delivered the industry’s first 8Gb LPDDR5 DRAM and today, the company is aggressively moving beyond mobile markets with the first 16Gb LPDDR5X DRAM.

The LPDDR5X DRAM will offer data processing speeds of up to 8.5 gigabits per second (Gbps), which are over 1.3 times faster than LPDDR5’s 6.4Gbps. Leveraging the industry’s most advanced 14nm DRAM process technology, it will also use around 20% less power than LPDDR5 memory. In addition, the 16Gb LPDDR5X chip will enable up to 64 gigabytes (GB) per memory package, accommodating increasing demand for higher-capacity mobile DRAM worldwide.

Later this year, Samsung will begin collaborating with global chipset manufacturers to establish a more viable framework for the expanding world of digital reality, with its LPDDR5X serving as a key part of that foundation.

The company will look to broaden its pacesetting mobile DRAM lineup with continuous improvements in performance and power efficiency, while also reinforcing its market leadership with greater manufacturing agility.