Samsung Electronics has begun sampling the industry’s first 16 Gb GDDR6 DRAM featuring 24 Gbps processing speeds.
The new memory is built on the company’s third-gen 10 nm (1z) process using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology and is designed to help accelerate the next generation of hardware, including graphics cards, laptops, and game consoles.
“The explosion of data now being driven by AI and the metaverse is pushing the need for greater graphics capabilities that can process massive data sets simultaneously, at extremely high speeds,” said Daniel Lee, executive vice president of the Memory Product Planning Team at Samsung Electronics.
“With our industry-first 24 Gbps GDDR6 now sampling, we look forward to validating the graphics DRAM on next-generation GPU platforms to bring it to market in time to meet an onslaught of new demand.”
Samsung’s press release can confirm that its 24 Gbps GDDR6 DRAM is fully compliant with JEDEC specifications and will be “compatible across all GPU designs.” The memory also includes low-power options for improving the battery life of laptops, and it will also enable “seamless” playback of higher-resolution video formats.
Utilizing dynamic voltage switching (DVS) technology which adjusts the operating voltage depending on performance requirements, Samsung will provide 20Gbps and 16Gbps versions with approximately 20% higher power efficiency at 1.1V, compared to the 1.35V GDDR6 industry standard.
Graphics DRAM is increasingly being sought for use beyond PCs, laptops and game consoles, extending into other graphics-intensive applications like HPC, autonomous driving and electric cars. Addressing these emerging markets, Samsung’s GDDR6 will enable seamless 4K and 8K video playback, while supporting demanding AI accelerator workloads.
Micron announced its new GDDR6X memory just a few months ago, which also supports speeds of up to 24 Gb/s. It can be found in NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics card running at an “industry-best” 21 Gb/s.
AMD’s flagship graphics card for gamers, the Radeon RX 6950 XT, features 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory.
Source: Samsung