Samsung's New LPDDR4 Mobile RAM Twice As Fast As Mainstream PC DDR3

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Samsung announced that it has started mass production of industry's first 8-Gigabit LPDDR4 RAM, which is the new standard of low power double data rate memory. The new memory packages will be built on Samsung's cutting edge 20nm process.

"By initiating production of the 20nm 8 Gb LPDDR4, which is even faster than the DRAM for PCs and servers and consumes much less energy, we are contributing to the timely launch of UHD, large-screen flagship mobile devices," said Joo Sun Choi, Executive Vice President of Memory Sales and Marketing at Samsung Electronics. "As this major advancement in mobile memory demonstrates, we will continue to closely collaborate with global mobile device manufacturers to optimize DRAM solutions, making them suitable for next-generation mobile OS environments."

The new mobile RAM will be more suited for 4k video recording and continuous shooting of 20MP or higher resolution images, thanks to its larger bandwidth. Samsung's LPDDR4 has an I/O data rate of 3,200 Mbps, which is twice as much as the DDR3 RAM that's used in desktop PCs.

The new LPDDR4 memory is also more energy efficient, using up to 40 percent less power than an LPDDR3 module with the same amount of RAM. Samsung's proprietary low-voltage swing-terminated logic (LVSTL) technology for its I/O signaling allows further energy savings for high-frequency operations.

Samsung has already begun providing 2 GB and 3 GB packages of 8 Gb and 6 Gb LPDDR4 RAM to its OEM customers,while the 4 GB packages will be available to them early in 2015.

It's possible we won't see all the new smartphone flagships coming out this spring with 4 GB of 8 Gb LPDDR4 RAM, but at least some of them should have it. The most likely candidate for the 4 GB LPDDR4 package is the Galaxy S6, Samsung's own smartphone. The Snapdragon 810 that's supposed to arrive in the U.S. version of the Galaxy S6 already supports LPDDR4.

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Lucian Armasu
Lucian Armasu
Lucian Armasu is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers software news and the issues surrounding privacy and security.
25 Comments Comment from the forums
  • InvalidError
    With so few devices shipping with more than 2GB RAM nearly two years after 2GB started becoming sort-of-standard, I would consider myself relatively happy if 3GB became common in 2015. I would not be surprised if Samsung ended up being the only one shipping phones and ARM-based tablets with 4GB RAM in 2015.
    Reply
  • Mark Rhodes
    3200mbps how is this twice as fast? ddr3 1600 has maximum transfer rate of 25.6 GB/second

    Names Memory Clock I/O Bus Clock Transfer Rate Theoretical Bandwidth
    DDR-200, PC-1600 100 MHz 100 MHz 0.2 GT/s 1.6 GB/s
    DDR2-800, PC2-6400 200 MHz 400 MHz 0.8 GT/s 6.4 GB/s
    DDR3-1600, PC3-12800 200 MHz 800 MHz 1.6 GT/s 12.8 GB/s
    DDR4-3200, PC4-25600 400 MHz 1600 MHz 3.2 GT/s 25.6 GB/s
    Reply
  • Mark Rhodes
    are you saying mb mega bits or MB mega bytes?
    Reply
  • Mark Rhodes
    PDDR4 and Wide I/O 2 are key new standards for memory interfaces,” said Quddus.

    LPDDR4 will effectively double the data bandwidth of its predecessor LPDDR3 to achieve 4.12Gbit/s.

    Wide I/O mobile DRAM is very much a high bandwidth memory interface for 3D gaming and HD video, with 1080p H.264 video, pico projection.

    It uses chip-level three dimensional stacking of memory chips interconnected with through silicon via (TSV) links. Memory bandwidth is up to 17Gbyte/s.
    - See more at: http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/general/lpddr4-mobile-memory-fast-track-2014-05/#sthash.vAe9w7PM.dpuf
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    14879527 said:
    3200mbps how is this twice as fast? ddr3 1600 has maximum transfer rate of 25.6 GB/second
    Your own table contradicts you, quoting DDR3-1600 at 12.8GB/s - your table is for single-channel (64bits) DRAM interface. To get 25.6GB/s out of DDR3-1600, you need a dual-channel (128bits) interface and if you use a dual-channel DDR4-3200, then you would get 53.2GB/s.

    I would be more interested in the latencies. DDR4-2400 is typically 15-16 cycles so I would expect DDR4-3200 to be 20-22 cycles.
    Reply
  • darkchazz
    "we are contributing to the timely launch of UHD, large-screen flagship mobile devices"

    I hope that doesn't happen anytime soon.
    Current mobile GPUs can barely push QHD, and I doubt they'll be enough to power 4K a year from now.

    Besides, I'd rather not have the GPU performance improvements wasted on pushing those extra pixels, which is exactly what's happening to the Adreno 420 currently.
    Reply
  • Mark Rhodes
    you are missing the point. I just made a typo. The chart is correct. according to this article the new ram is going to be 400MB per second. 3,200 Mbps / 8 400MB per second is still way slower than 12.8GB/ Second. The true number for the new memory is bandwidth is up to 17Gbyte/s. The article is inaccurate.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    14879951 said:
    Current mobile GPUs can barely push QHD, and I doubt they'll be enough to power 4K a year from now.
    Even if they did, the K1 already drains batteries in little more than two hours driving graphics-intensive stuff at 1200p. If you quadruple the K1's processing power to drive UHD, you would end up burning through the battery in little more than an hour even if you assume power efficiency will double from going 14-16nm.

    The saddest part about those ultra-high resolutions that they will end up on 4-6" devices is that most people will hardly be able to tell the difference on under normal everyday viewing conditions.
    Reply
  • yumri
    you are missing the point. I just made a typo. The chart is correct. according to this article the new ram is going to be 400MB per second. 3,200 Mbps / 8 400MB per second is still way slower than 12.8GB/ Second. The true number for the new memory is bandwidth is up to 17Gbyte/s. The article is inaccurate.

    I think you are getting DDR RAM and LPDDR RAM confused as you use DDR RAM inside a desktop and laptops while LPDDR RAM is used in cameras, cellphones, tablets, etc. as LPDDR uses less power but before of the lower power requirements less data can be transfered to and from it.
    While DDR4 is quick and fast LPDDR4 is about as good as DDR3 in the throughput to and from it. This is good as it means higher resulations on embedded devices but it meianly means nothing to us consumers who are not into building a computer chip by chip which btw is super expenive unless you are buying in bulk then it would be a waste to only build 1 and not a ton of computers.
    Reply
  • Mark Rhodes
    smart phones are for the masses of sheep or are slaves to them. It will never replace my desktop computer that is literally a thousand times faster when you combine GPU and CPU compute ability. Smart phones are just a phase and will be replaced by holograms.
    Reply