“With our 12nm-class 32Gb DRAM, we have secured a solution that will enable DRAM modules of up to 1-terabyte (TB), allowing us to be ideally positioned to serve the growing need for high-capacity DRAM in the era of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and big data,” said SangJoon Hwang, Executive Vice President of DRAM Product & Technology at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue to develop DRAM solutions through differentiated process and design technologies to break the boundaries of memory technology.”

A 500,000 Fold Increase in DRAM Capacity Since 1983

Having developed its first 64-kilobit (Kb) DRAM in 1983, Samsung has now succeeded in enhancing its DRAM capacity by a factor of 500,000 over the last 40 years.

Samsung’s newest memory product, developed using cutting-edge processes and technologies to increase integration density and design optimization, boasts the industry’s highest capacity for a single DRAM chip and offers double the capacity of 16Gb DDR5 DRAM in the same package size.

Previously, DDR5 128GB DRAM modules manufactured using 16Gb DRAM required the Through Silicon Via (TSV) process. However, by using Samsung’s 32Gb DRAM, the 128GB module can now be produced without using the TSV process, while reducing power consumption by approximately 10% compared to 128GB modules with 16Gb DRAM. This technological breakthrough makes the product the optimal solution for enterprises that emphasize power efficiency, such as data centers.

With its 12nm-class 32Gb DDR5 DRAM as a foundation, Samsung plans to continue expanding its lineup of high-capacity DRAM to meet the current and future demands of the computing and IT industry. Samsung will reaffirm its leadership in the next-generation DRAM market by supplying the 12-nm-class 32Gb DRAM to data centers as well as to customers that require applications like AI and next-generation computing. The product will also play an important role in Samsung’s continued collaboration with other key industry players.

Mass production of the new 12nm-class 32Gb DDR5 DRAM is scheduled to begin by the end of this year.

To find out more about Samsung’s DRAM products, visit Samsung Semiconductor website.

¹ DDR5 DRAM: Double-Data Rate 5 Dynamic Random-Access Memory.

Samsung Electronics today announced the development of its 16-gigabit (Gb) DDR5 DRAM built using the industry’s first 12-nanometer (nm)-class process technology, as well as the completion of product evaluation for compatibility with AMD.

“Our 12nm-range DRAM will be a key enabler in driving market-wide adoption of DDR5 DRAM,” said Jooyoung Lee, Executive Vice President of DRAM Product & Technology at Samsung Electronics. “With exceptional performance and power efficiency, we expect our new DRAM to serve as the foundation for more sustainable operations in areas such as next-generation computing, data centers and AI-driven systems.”

“Innovation often requires close collaboration with industry partners to push the bounds of technology,” said Joe Macri, Senior VP, Corporate Fellow and Client, Compute and Graphics CTO at AMD. “We are thrilled to once again collaborate with Samsung, particularly on introducing DDR5 memory products that are optimized and validated on ‘Zen’ platforms.”

This technological leap was made possible through the use of a new high-κ material that increases cell capacitance and proprietary design technology that improves critical circuit characteristics. Combined with advanced, multi-layer extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, the new DRAM features the industry’s highest die density, which enables a 20 percent gain in wafer productivity.

Leveraging the latest DDR5 standard, Samsung’s 12nm-class DRAM will help unlock speeds of up to 7.2 gigabits per second (Gbps). This translates into processing two 30 gigabyte (GB) UHD movies in just one second.

The new DRAM’s exceptional speed is matched by greater power efficiency. Consuming up to 23 percent less power than the previous DRAM, the 12nm-class DRAM will be an ideal solution for global IT companies pursuing more environment-friendly operations.

With mass production set to begin in 2023, Samsung plans to broaden its DRAM lineup built on this cutting-edge 12nm-class process technology into a wide range of market segments as it continues to work with industry partners to support the rapid expansion of next-generation computing.

Future-First Memory Solutions for Data-Driven Innovation

With the development of their DDR5 solution, Samsung, a company known for changing the landscape of the global dynamic random access memory (DRAM) market, has introduced yet another generational shift in the IT industry. Furthermore, following the release earlier this year of CPUs that support DDR5, tremendous change is expected in the computing landscape, too, with growth expected to encompass gaming and mainstream PCs as well.

Compared to its predecessor which hit the market in 2013, DDR4, DDR5 DRAM boasts twice the speed and four times the capacity, at 4800Mpbs and 512GB respectively.¹ This next-generation high-performance memory allows networks to handle the soaring amounts of data generated by cloud computing, AI and autonomous driving systems. Unlike DDR4, DDR5 directly incorporates a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) into a dual in-line memory module (DIMM), resulting in a 30 percent increase in power efficiency on the module level and a more stable power supply.

Data centers are the main users of DDR5, since, in order to work at their full potential, they require low-power, high-performance memory as they consume large amounts of energy to perform operations and keep servers cool. Starting from the third quarter of this year, existing DRAMs for servers are set to steadily be replaced by DDR5, a shift that could help data centers stay cost-efficient and encourage sustainable, eco-friendly development.

Going beyond the performance limitations of existing DRAMs, DDR5 will be pivotal in leading data-driven innovation in terms of speed, capacity and eco-friendliness. In order to learn more about the new world DDR5 is helping to build, take a look at the video below.

¹ These figures concern modules for servers.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today unveiled the industry’s first memory module supporting the new Compute Express Link (CXL) interconnect standard. Integrated with Samsung’s Double Data Rate 5 (DDR5) technology, this CXL-based module will enable server systems to significantly scale memory capacity and bandwidth, accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads in data centers.

The rise of AI and big data has been fueling the trend toward heterogeneous computing, where multiple processors work in parallel to process massive volumes of data. CXL—an open, industry-supported interconnect based on the PCI Express (PCIe) 5.0 interface—enables high-speed, low latency communication between the host processor and devices such as accelerators, memory buffers and smart I/O devices, while expanding memory capacity and bandwidth well beyond what is possible today. Samsung has been collaborating with several data center, server and chipset manufacturers to develop next-generation interface technology since the CXL consortium was formed in 2019.

“This is the industry’s first DRAM-based memory solution that runs on the CXL interface, which will play a critical role in serving data-intensive applications including AI and machine learning in data centers as well as cloud environments,” said Cheolmin Park, vice president of the Memory Product Planning Team at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will continue to raise the bar with memory interface innovation and capacity scaling to help our customers, and the industry at-large, better manage the demands of larger, more complex, real-time workloads that are key to AI and the data centers of tomorrow.”

Dr. Debendra Das Sharma, Intel Fellow and Director of I/O Technology and Standards at Intel said, “Data center architecture is rapidly evolving to support the growing demand and workloads for AI and ML, and CXL memory is expected to expand the use of memory to a new level. We continue to work with industry companies such as Samsung to develop a robust memory ecosystem around CXL.”

Dan McNamara, senior vice president and general manager, Server Business Unit, AMD, added, “AMD is committed to driving the next generation of performance in cloud and enterprise computing. Memory research is a critical piece to unlocking this performance, and we are excited to work with Samsung to deliver advanced interconnect technology to our data center customers.”

Unlike conventional DDR-based memory, which has limited memory channels, Samsung’s CXL-enabled DDR5 module can scale memory capacity to the terabyte level, while dramatically reducing system latency caused by memory caching.

In addition to CXL hardware innovation, Samsung has incorporated several controller and software technologies like memory mapping, interface converting and error management, which will allow CPUs or GPUs to recognize the CXL-based memory and utilize it as the main memory.

Samsung’s new module has been successfully validated on next-generation server platforms from Intel, signaling the beginning of an era for high-bandwidth, low latency CXL-based memory using the latest DDR5 standard. Samsung is also working with data center and cloud providers around the world to better accommodate the need for greater memory capacity that will be essential in handling big data applications including in-memory database systems.

As the DDR5-based CXL memory module becomes commercialized, Samsung intends to lead the industry in meeting the demand for next-generation high-performance computing technologies that rely on expanded memory capacity and bandwidth.

“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.