In an effort to push the limits of memory performance and attain increasingly high frequencies, Adata built itself an overclocking lab where it will experiment with "potentially more effective methods" than what is currently used.
The new 'XPG Overclocking Lab' (XOCL) is the first of its kind among global DRAM makers, according to Adata. It's not entirely clear what the end game is, other than pursuing record-breaking memory speeds. The announcement is rather vague in that regard.
"With growing demand for memory modules that can operate at ever-higher frequencies, Adata believes the future of overclocking lies beyond the established techniques of air and liquid cooling," said Neo and Stin at Adata Technology. "The mission of the XPG Overclocking Lab is to explore new, potentially more effective methods that can break the threshold of memory speeds and incorporate them into XPG products for the benefit of users."
As it stands, extreme overclockers typically turn to liquid nitrogen when attempting world record frequencies and/or benchmarks. Adata recently participated in one of those attempts, when its XPG Spectrix D80 RGB DDR4 memory hit a record 5,531MHz with LN2. Going forward, Adata says it will actively seek out partnerships within the industry, including both hardware makers like MSI and extreme overclockers.
Adata makes numerous references to "experimenting with new techniques and methods," but doesn't say exactly what it has in mind. What's most interesting to me is the part about incorporating these mystery techniques "into XPG products for the benefit of users." Might we see off-the-shelf memory kits with some new form of cooling? That seems to be what Adata is suggesting, though more likely I suspect the focus will remain on exotic solutions that exist outside the bounds of mainstream use.
I've reached out to Adata for more information and will update this article when/if I hear back.
