DDR4 Memory Prototypes Demostrated at ISSCC

With DDR4 DRAM set to hit the market in 2013, two manufactures took the opportunity at this years International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) to demonstrate their DDR4 DRAM. It is expected that DDR4 will represent 50 percent of the market by mid-2015, after its initial launch on the server side in 2013.

DDR4 is set to have a data transfer rates of 2133 MT/s to 4266 MT/s compared to 800 MT/s to 2133 MT/s of DDR3. DDR4 is also expected to have significantly lower voltage requirements than DDR3. It will require between 1.05 V to 1.2 V to operate, whereas DDR3 requires between 1.2 V to 1.5 V. The lower voltage requirement is expected to reduces power consumption by 40 percent compared to a 1.5 V DDR3 module. DDR4 will not be pin compatible with DDR3, which means they will not be backwards compatible.   

(Image credit: XbitLabs)

Samsung's DDR4 DRAM module can achieve data transfer rates of 2133 Gb/s at 1.2V, compared to 1.35V and 1.5V DDR3 DRAM at an equivalent 30nm-class process technology, with speeds of up to 1.6 Gb/s. Hynix's DDR4 device works at 2400MHz (2400 Mb/s) at 1.2V and processes up to 19.2 GB/s of data per second with a 64-bit I/O. Hynix used its 38nm manufacturing process technology, while Samsung employed the 30nm node instead.

Other manufacturers such as, Elpida, Micron and Nanya, didn't show off their DDR4 prototypes but are expected to by end 2012. With DDR4 set to hit the PC enthusiast market in 2014, are you going to make the jump to DDR4 or wait until it becomes mainstream much like many users did with the switch from DDR2 to DDR3?

  • Memnarchon
    Lets hope that DDR4 will be supported by Haswell and LGA1150.
    Reply
  • garyshome
    If the old stuff holds out, seems like I just might wait. Supposed to get a new laptop from cyberpower today for the DJ business.
    Reply
  • de5_Roy
    p.e.g. will hugely benefit from lower voltage, higher bw ddr4. biggest boost will be in mobile pcs.
    i guess haswell-successor and amd piledriver's successors might support ddr4.
    Reply
  • supall
    So we're to expect DDR4 between 2-3 years? Please, if you're holding out for DDR4, do yourself a favor and build the machine now. You'll be building another machine 2-4 years from now anyhow, if you're reading Tom's.
    Reply
  • afrobacon
    I have yet to make the jump to DDR3. I really need to upgrade :/
    Reply
  • wishmaster12
    I was hopeing for the push of XDR
    Reply
  • rangas
    ive just built my PC this year, seems like my next will be in 2015 after ddr4 is going more mainstream
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    "are you going to make the jump to DDR4 or wait until it becomes mainstream much like many users did with the switch from DDR2 to DDR3?"

    Well, it's pretty much up to the price TBH... Unless they prove to be a major performance booster, I'd say most people can wait. Maybe AMD's APUs might/should speed up their adoption.

    Cheers!
    Reply
  • bawchicawawa
    Fully matured APU's in 2014 + ddr4, I smell something beautiful.
    Reply
  • drwho1
    I will wait, my PC's I just built them just about a year ago...
    I know that I will still upgrade them both at some point with both more RAM and SSD's,
    and that should be enough for them for another 4-5 years.

    By then DDR4 will be mainstream anyway, and prices would have come down from their initial price.

    The only question is: How much DDR4 RAM to buy when the time is right?
    Like I mentioned, I will upgrade my ram, on my main PC it will go from 4GB (what it has now) to 16GB
    (my motherboard limit) since I have always at least double the amount of RAM on each PC...

    Then I can safely guess that I will "need" or get a minimum of 32GB but expandable to 64GB or 128GB.
    Then again the motherboards that will be compatible with this memory will also include other features... and we need to know more about them.

    Anyways, this are exciting news indeed.
    Reply