SK Hynix Develops First JEDEC-Compliant DDR5 RAM

SK Hynix announced today that it has developed the industry’s first DDR5 DRAM that is compliant with the JEDEC memory standard. Other manufacturers may have announced the development of DDR5 first, but those companies started developing them before the DDR5 standard was finalized.

Specs

SK Hynix's first DDR5 chip has a capacity of 16 Gbits (or 2 GB) and uses the same 1Ynm process technology that was used for the 1Ynm 8Gb DDR4 DRAM the company recently developed.

SK Hynix said that it has successfully lowered the operating voltage from 1.2V to 1.1V, which, combined with the new process, led to a reduction in power consumption of 30 percent compared to the company’s previous DDR4 chips.

The new offering supports a data transfer rate of 5,200 Mbps, which is 60 percent faster than the 3,200 Mbps data transfer rate we saw in the previous generation. That means the chips can process 41.6 GB of data per second.

DDR5 DRAM Is Coming

DDR5 DRAM is almost here, with most DRAM developers promising shipping products by 2020. However, even if we see some DDR5 chips in 2019, they likely won't be mass-produced at least until 2020 when mobile and desktop CPUs will also start supporting DDR5.

In terms of availability for SK Hynix's DDR5 product, company vice president and head of volume product design Joohwan Cho said in a statement:

“Based on technological advancements that allowed the industry’s first DDR5 DRAM to meet the JEDEC standards, SK Hynix plans to begin mass producing the product from 2020, when the DDR5 market is expected to open, to actively respond to the demands of clients.”

SK Hynix said that it provided a “major chipset maker” with Registered Dual In-line Memory Module (RDIMM) and UDIMM (Unbuffered DIMM) technology for server and PC platforms with double the memory banks (from 16 to 32), in accordance with JEDEC's DDR5 standards.

According to IDC data cited by SK Hynix's announcement, demand for DDR5 DRAM is expected to reach 25 percent of the total DRAM market by 2021 and 44 percent by 2022.