Samsung figures out key to faster, more power efficient DRAM

Samsung DRAM

Samsung is in full gloat mode over having begun mass producing what it says is the industry's first 10-nanometer class, 8-gigabit DDR4 DRAM chips, along with full-fledged modules that use the new chips.

There are a few things to note here. The first is that these are not 10nm chips, but 10nm-class, which can mean anything from 10nm to 19nm. A source presumably "familiar with the matter" whispered to ZDNet that they're 18nm chips, and that they're already shipping to clients.

Be that as it may, getting below 20nm isn't a piece of cake, hence why Samsung can make an announcement like this and competitors like Micron can't. Samsung had a bit of an advantage in that it's already using 10nm-class MLC NAND flash memory chips on some of its solid state drives, but it's decidedly more difficult to get to the same place with DRAM chips.

The challenge with DRAM is that each cell requires a capacitor and transistor that go together, typically with the capacitor on top of the area where the transistor is at. To make things even more difficult, 10nm-class DRAM requires that Samsung stack very narrow cylinder-shaped capacitors on top of a just a few dozen 1nm-wide transistors, Samsung explains.

Samsung overcame the technical challenges by tweaking the quadruple patterning lithography that it uses for the aforementioned NAND chips. As an added bonus, this method allows Samsung to use its existing photolithography equipment.

What does all this mean for end users? Along with other technical improvements Samsung made en route to 10nm-class DRAM, Samsung claims a 30 percent boost in performance compared to 20nm-based DRAM, while consuming 10-20 percent less power. The latter won't matter much to home consumers, though for large data centers, the power savings can add up (and presumably mean less heat).

Samsung will be introducing a variety of 10nm-class DRAM modules, everything from 4GB solutions for laptops to 128GB kits for enterprise servers.

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).

Latest in Memory
A photo of Corsair's Vengeance DDR5-8400 CUDIMM memory kit
Corsair Vengeance DDR5-8400 CUDIMM review
Corsair's personalized memroy on a gradient
Corsair's new 'personalised RAM' gives you the option to pick the look and speed of memory you hide in the case anyway
A promotional image showing multiple Corsair Vengeance CUDIMM memory sticks on a desk
Corsair rolls out its first CUDIMM memory sticks for Intel Arrow Lake gaming PCs and they're as pricey as you'd expect them to be
Corsair Vengeance RAM sticks
We've more or less hit RAM price equilibrium: this 32 GB 6000 MT/s DDR5 kit is closing in on the price of a comparable DDR4 kit
G.SKILL DDR5
G.SKILL and Kingston break the 12,000MT/s DDR5 memory barrier with Intel's new Arrow Lake CPU
A pair of Team Group DDR5-RAM kits against a teal background with a white border
Need some speedy DDR5 for a new build or gaming PC upgrade? This Team Group 32 GB kit is just $86
Latest in News
Two brightly colored stormtroopers dressed like Run-DMC stand in front of PAX Australia's WELCOME HOME banner.
Tickets for PAX Australia 2025 are on sale now
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again