Samsung has announced that it is starting mass production of 12Gb LPDDR4 mobile DRAM. This could potentially lead to smartphones with 6GB of RAM; not that any mobile app actually needs access to that much memory at this time. The smaller 20nm manufacturing process could also be used to make thinner smartphones.
The 12Gb LPDDR4 enables 3GB RAM to be installed in a single package using just two chips. The saved space would allow Samsung to keep on its quest to keep making thinner and lighter phones, although that difference might be a marginally smaller device. Alternatively, it could mount 6GB RAM into the same amount of space that is currently occupied by 3GB RAM.
As expected, the new RAM is not only more compact than its predecessor, it is also much faster. The 12Gb LPDDR4 DRAM is 30-percent faster than the 8Gb LPDDR4, and Samsung claims that it is twice as fast as DDR4 RAM on PCs. However, the Samsung Tomorrow blog seems to have left out a couple of disclaimers about the statement; evident by the asterisks that are missing footnotes.
We’re not sure when this new technology will begin appearing in Samsung devices, but it might still be a while before the production lines are capable of meeting demand. It could still be a couple more years before we see Samsung devices with this amount of RAM; and it will be even longer before we see apps that demand those kinds of specifications.
[Source: Samsung Tomorrow]
