Samsung announced a new mobile DRAM with a wide I/O interface that will be used in smartphones and tablet PCs. The new DRAM is capable of transmitting data at a speed of 12.8 GBs per second which is four times faster than the recently introduced LPDDR2 DRAM and eight times faster than DDR DRAM which transmits 3.2 GB/s and 1.6 GB/s, respectively. The speed boost also comes with impressive power savings; the new wide I/O DRAM boasts of 87% less power consumption than the DRAM presently used in mobile devices. It will also be available in 4GB capacity, a notable increase over the current 1GB modules.
Samsung uses 512-pin technology to achieve these increased speeds, which is a significant advancement over the previous generation 32-pin technology. This wide I/O DRAM uses up to 1,200 pins for controlling data I/O, sending commands and regulating power consumption. The electronics manufacturer is expected to ship this 20-nanometer class 4GB wide I/O mobile DRAM in 2013. Couple this low-power, high-speed DRAM with NVIDIA’s recently announced quad-core processors and you have the makings of a true super phone or super tablet being crafted in the R&D rooms of mobile manufacturers worldwide.
Detailed information on this mobile RAM technology will be presented during the 2011 International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) which started Sunday, February 20 and continues until the 24th in San Francisco. Additional details for the hardware-minded folks are available in the press release on the second page.