Samsung set to keep supremacy in low power DRAM with game changer

South Korea’s No. 1 memory chip maker Samsung Electronics Co., also the world’s top player, is set to further break away from the pack with advanced memory chip products that are expected to bring a paradigm shift to the digital world and fast forward the artificial intelligence era.

Samsung Electronics announced on Tuesday that it has developed a low power compression attached memory module (LPCAMM), a more advanced memory form factor built upon a package of multiple low power double data rate (LPDDR) memory chips, the industry’s first of its kind.

“The energy efficiency and repairability advantages of LPCAMM make this new form factor a game changer in today’s PC market,” said Dr. Dimitrios Ziakas, vice president of Memory & IO Technology at Intel Corp. “We’re excited to be a part of the new standard enabling the client PC ecosystem.”

Samsung Electronics has completed the system verification of its 7.5 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) LPCAMM with Intel and plans to commercialize it by 2024 after more tests with next-generation systems with major customers, including Intel.

Compared with the small outline dual in-line memory module (So-DIMM), LPCAMM allows more efficient use of devices’ internal space because it occupies up to 60% less space on the motherboard, the company explained.

It can also improve devices’ performance and power efficiency by up to 50% and 70%, respectively, it added.

As LPCAMM is a detachable module unlike on-board low power memory LPDDR, it makes it easier to upgrade or change it later without replacing the whole motherboard.

Thanks to its “high performance, low power consumption and manufacturing flexibility,” LPCAMM is expected to “gain wide adoption” in not only PCs and laptops but also data centers in the AI era, said Bae Yong-cheol, executive vice president of Memory Product Planning Team at Samsung Electronics.   


FORERUNNER IN LOW POWER DRAM

With the latest development, Samsung Electronics is expected to cement its leadership in the global low power memory chip market, forecast to grow rapidly in line with increasing demand for AI and 5G network technologies.

The Korean memory giant forecasts the collective sum of global data to grow to 181 zettabytes (ZB) by 2025 from an estimated 100ZB in 2023. It was a mere 2ZB in 2010.

Because the surge in worldwide data creation means massive power consumption by data centers, demand for low power DRAM chips is projected to grow steadily.


Samsung Electronics currently commands the global low power DRAM market, with a 57.6% share as of the first quarter of this year, according to Omdia. The market was estimated at $25.25 billion as of 2022.

The Korean memory leader has developed a pack of next-generation memory products tailored for AI applications such as DDR5 32Gb, GDDR7 and LLW.

It is currently developing a DRAM chip that can be combined with a logic chip.

Write to Ye-Rin Choi at rambutan@hankyung.com


Sookyung Seo edited this article.