Samsung Starts Production of 16 Gb LPDDR4X Chips Using 2nd Gen 10nm Tech
by Anton Shilov on July 27, 2018 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Memory
- Samsung
- Smartphones
- 10nm
- LPDDR4X
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Samsung this week announced that it has begun manufacturing its new LPDDR4X memory chips using its second-generation 10 nm-class fabrication process (which is traditionally called 1y nm). The new technology enables the company to slightly cut down power consumption of the new memory devices as well as to reduce the thickness of actual LPDDR4X memory packages installed into smartphones.
Samsung’s new LPDDR4X memory devices feature a 16 Gb capacity and are rated to run at 4266 MT/s. The manufacturer says that the new DRAMs consume 10% less power than their predecessors made using its first-gen 10 nm-class (1x nm manufacturing technology), but without reducing industry-standard voltages for this type of memory (VDD1=1.1V, VDD2=1.8V, VDDQ=0.6V). Meanwhile Samsung is not disclosing anything about die sizes, but if their second-generation tech is indeed a smaller process, then the resulting chips should, in time, be at least slightly cheaper to manufacture.
Meanwhile, the company says that its new 8 GB LPDDR4X package, which consists of four new 16 Gb dies, features a 20% lower thickness compared to the company’s previous-gen 8 GB LPDDR4X-4266 package. Naturally, such packages enable makers of smartphones to make their devices slightly thinner, assuming that they can bring thickness of other components down too. In addition to the new 8 GB LPDDR4X stacks, Samsung also plans to offer LPDDR4X in 4 GB and 6 GB packages for slightly more affordable smartphones.
Samsung started to use its 1y nm production technology for DRAM back in December, 2017. The new LPDDR4X ICs seem to be the company’s second product to use the new fabrication process. Considering the high-density nature of LPDDR4X, usage of the 2nd Gen 10nm-class fabrication process for manufacturing of such ICs may indicate that yields of the tech have improved since last year. In the coming months the company will further expand usage of its 1y nm production process.
Large DRAM makers usually make announcements regarding mass production after they ship the first batch to a customer. Therefore, expect the new 16 Gb LPDDR4X ICs from Samsung inside actual devices in the coming months.
Related Reading:
- Samsung Announces First LPDDR5 DRAM Chip, Targets 6.4Gbps Data Rates & 30% Reduced Power
- SK Hynix Announces 8 GB LPDDR4X-4266 DRAM Packages
- Samsung Introduces 8 GB LPDDR4-4266 Package for Mobile Devices
- Hot Chips 2016: Memory Vendors Discuss Ideas for Future Memory Tech - DDR5, Cheap HBM, & More
- Samsung Starts Production of 8 Gb DDR4-3600 ICs Using 2nd Gen 10nm-Class Tech
Source: Samsung
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PeachNCream - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
Okay, so what does MT/s translate into in terms of bits or bytes per second? Can Anandtech publish specs like CAS, RAS, memory clockspeed, and bandwidth as well? The additional numbers would be more helpful.Wilco1 - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
It means 4266 Mb/s per pin, so with a 64-bit bus (like a DIMM) max 34GB/s. High-end smart phones have around 25GB/s bandwidth, so this is a good improvement.Vince789 - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
The 845 has 29.9GB/s (3732Mb/s per pin) and 9810 has 28.7GB/s (3588 Mb/s per pin). Not sure what's the A11, probably the similar ~30GB/sHopefully next year's SoC use the LPDDR5 51.2GB/s (6400Mb/s per pin) or 44GB/s (5500Mb/s per pin) Samsung announced last week
Teckk - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
Don't make phones thinner please, increase the battery capacity at the same thickness!justaviking - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
On the contrary - Make my phone thinner so I can protect it with a thicker case. <roll eyes>Dragonstongue - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
that would make too much sense, instead they will make as thin as possible to ensure more likely to break, cover every part they possibly can in glass and up the price because it is thinner and covered in glass.I personally am HAPPY with thickness of iphone 4, if they were to use this as a "base thickness" then likely they can increase width, height for larger or smaller screen as needed and ensure plenty of room for a good to great battery size AND more robust design that is less likely to break..oh and plenty of room to always have a 3.5mm jack without the excuse "because there is no room"
Like, give me a break, a phone thin enough that you can relatively easily bend it, stupid Apple. Other phone makers are at or very near the same problematic design concept.
not bad for the "average" midrange "smartphone" costing $320+ USD..
So called "flagships" $580+ are no better but they use ocatacore designs to chew the dinky battery that much faster...So worth the $$$ I will take a dozen please, just to make sure I have at least one that does not break if look at it the wrong way.
Also, Samsung saying 2nd generation 10nm for DDR4, funny I do not ever recall hearing of a gen 1 for purchase/in use anywhere, unless it is like Intel is doing with their 14nm or TSMC/GF doing with their 16/14nm designs respectively, changing gate pitch just a wee bit and calling it a lower nm design, instead of it being FULL design at 10nm not just some portions of it.
truth in advertising is important you putz companies ^.^
PeachNCream - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
I don't think there's an active plot happening where people are gleefully rubbing their greedy hands together as they discuss ways to make phones thinner and consequently more fragile with the intention of ensuring they break more easily. If that were the case, those same companies could easily just use cheaper, less durable materials and skimp on quality control while cutting back on the warranty to reach the same end with less engineering effort and lower overall expenses. Reducing thickness is instead driven by competitive forces that are more or less naturally occurring among customers and companies collectively. When one company touts a reduction in thickness as a benefit to consumers that differentiates that specific phone from others AND consumers speak through purchases, it drives other companies to follow suit and subsequently compete based on that particular measurement.Quantumz0d - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
Sorry you are wrong.A few references or trends that you can observe.
- Intel BGA from rPGA, increased SKUs and more option to OEM to charge premium.
- Ngreedia abandoned MXM, an open standard to have modular and socketed universal standard. Ngreedia MaxQ, check the NBC article on it.
-Apple famous Touch disease and how they cheaped out on components from metal quality to structural integrity, now still their integrity isn't on to scale like Samsung or Nokia 6.
-Apple butterfly mechanism on purpose failure flawed design, apple touts thickness of laptops this sparked a major race to bottom where you can see all XPS machines follow th same suit of abandoning the I/O charge more for dongle BS. Add the latest i9 cheaped out VRM fiasco, this is across all MSI GT Titan systems as well.
-Alienware using the Tripod for first time cheaped on the HS and caused a havoc on their Skylake and KBL machines its still there on the latest i9 marketing for the CFL as well.
-Intel Terminal Velocity Boost (supreme marketing junk)
-Sony's DVS ( Dynamic Vibration Gimmick) reason provided for the lack of jack.
-Apple taptic engine, but how about you check th iFixit teardown and see XRay scans of 6S to X and see how its a blatant lie for th MFi ecosystem and dongle market, Note 8/9 has no bump better built plus has same haptics and more feature packed. LG has MIL spec for the same phones without notch and have Jacks. Poor LG uses ESS HiFi audio but no one cares, why marketing engine making its wonders, Beats and Bose yay !
-Glass will break no matter what, its prone to fail vs Metal.
-Li-Ion cycles exhaust out, its fundamental physics that these corporations do, thin and light caused this BGA madness to destroy NB market and now phones as well. Apple focuses heavily on PR, which causes all the other OEMs to blindly follow dreaming about emulating the same success, Li-ion phones are prone to go obsolete. Its predestined. Only removable battery can change it, Apple faked their perf with battery gate and gimped efficiency of their CPUs and installed low capacity batteries, gets away due to deep pocket and people who are addicted to social media.
-Android P started to kill the powerful android by cutting it off of the Hidden APIs, banning RRO, copying iOS for simplicity and killed off battery graphs (Apple copied them on iOS12, a shame to google)
-Pixel has tons of HW flaws charges premium for that iClone (gen one looks like an iPhone 100% copy), has beta software yet gets away due to media love, deep pocket again, just like Disney (they move when they get caught, LA times fiasco).
Its all a pattern. Everything is bound to fail (Planned obsolescence) form over function.
Its a shame.
PeachNCream - Monday, July 30, 2018 - link
A number of your points have nothing to do with the thickness of modern phones. Some of your points are focused on phone software, not hardware. Many of your points use mocking or loaded terminology that indicates bias thinking and a lack of the necessary depth of thought required to reflect with any fairness on the matter being discussed.Quantumz0d - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link
Nothing to do with the thickness, Oh. Okay. I also can say that you lack the necessary depth of thought when one simply cannot connect the dots associated with the industry corporations trend, also except the last point on P, nothing is software.