Micron Announces its First DDR4 Module, Production in Q4
Micron said that it has begun shipping "fully functional" DDR4 memory modules in sample numbers to customers.
DDR4 is expected to be shipping in volume in 2014, but Micron believes that it will enter volume production in the fourth quarter of this year and have the chips ready for applications in early 2013.
The modules were developed in collaboration with Nanya and manufactured as a the 4 Gb DDR4 x8 part in a 30 nm process. When in production, Micron says it will be offering RDIMMs, LRDIMMs, 3DS, SODIMMs and UDIMMs in standard and ECC versions. Initial speeds of the devices will reach 2,400 MT/s and eventually hit 3,200 MT/s.
"With the JEDEC definition for DDR4 very near finalization, we've put significant effort into ensuring that our first DDR4 product is as JEDEC-compatible as it can be at this final stage of its development," said Brian Shirley, vice president for Micron's DRAM Solutions Group, in a prepared statement. "We've provided samples to key partners in the market place with confidence that the die we give them now is the same die we will take into mass production."
Micron's roadmap looks especially interesting in the light of its planned acquisition of Elpida Memory, which could boost its DRAM market share to an estimated 25 percent, according to market research firm IHS. The company could grow into a serious competitor for Samsung, which announced the first DDR4 module in January 2011.
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Douglas Perry was a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering semiconductors, storage technology, quantum computing, and processor power delivery. He has authored several books and is currently an editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive.
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vaughn2k When Samsung announced the DDR4 launch in 2011, nobody was yet, interested at that time, because the availability of JEDEC standard. Then last month, Samsung was trying to push Intel the release of the DDR4 JEDEC ahead of the 2014 schedule.Reply
Now Micron is releasing in Q4!
I love competition, and turning the tides! -
jaquith Let the nightmare of incompatibility commence!Reply
I do look forward to the faster speeds and low voltage, I just foresee a boat load of initial problems getting DDR4-2400 and faster sets to work properly. -
volks1470 I could see a benefit for servers, but i can't see a reason to upgrade for the average desktop user.Reply
We're definitely entering "good enough" computing for most all components. Semi-Accurate wrote a great article on this subject.
Storage still has much more room for improvement!! Talk about a bottleneck... -
youssef 2010 volks1470I could see a benefit for servers, but i can't see a reason to upgrade for the average desktop user. We're definitely entering "good enough" computing for most all components. Semi-Accurate wrote a great article on this subject. Storage still has much more room for improvement!! Talk about a bottleneck...Reply
Exactly my thoughts. As TH has proved many times, Ram speeds in excess of 1600MHz return very little gains to be considered worthwhile.
Still, I'm not going to say no to technology. And who knows what will happen in 2014? -
verbalizer @ jaquithReply
use the force and the RAM timings/motherboard compatibility will be strong with you.. -
daglesj Ahhh move forward to 2014 and see masses of guys pointlessly busy trying to lower the CAS settings of these modules in their parents basement in the hope of going from 146FPS to 146.5FPS.Reply
If only that kind of effort and enthusiasm could be used for good. -
robisinho just some hypothesis but: maybe intel was originally supposed to have .. I guess it would be ivy bridge Xeons in 2013 with DDR4 but they realized they wont have them til at least a quarter later (and thus in 2014) -- so announced their expectation for DDR4 in 2014. Obviously I don't mean the E3 budget line (which still might make 2012), but that would be a weird line to introduce DDR4 server memory on.Reply