Samsung has announced the world’s first 512GB DDR5 memory module based on High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) process technology. Samsung has become the World’s first manufacturer to develop a 512 GB DDR5 memory module, which the company says has been made possible by the use of an 8-layer TSV structure.
DDR5 is the next generation of memory and it will be capable of performing the most extreme compute-hungry, high-bandwidth workloads in supercomputing, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), as well as data analytics applications. DDR5 delivers more than twice the performance of DDR4 at up to 7,200 megabits per second.
Samsung’s Vice President of the DRAM Memory Planning/Enabling Group, Young-Soo Sohn said the following about the DDR5 module based on High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) process technology.
Samsung is the only semiconductor company with logic and memory capabilities and the expertise to incorporate HKMG cutting-edge logic technology into memory product development. By bringing this type of process innovation to DRAM manufacturing, we are able to offer our customers high-performance, yet energy-efficient memory solutions to power the computers needed for medical research, financial markets, autonomous driving, smart cities and beyond.
Samsung’s DDR5 memory modules will be utilizing advanced HKMG technology. This technology has been used in logic semiconductors but now it will be featured in Samsung’s DDR5 modules. By replacing the insulator with HKMG material, Samsung’s DDR5 will be able to reduce the leakage and reach new heights in performance. This new memory will also use approximately 13% less power, making it especially suitable for data centers where energy efficiency is becoming increasingly critical.
The HKMG process was first adopted by Samsung in its GDDR6 memory modules in 2018. Samsung is using through-silicon via (TSV) technology which allows its DDR5 stacks eight layers of 16Gb DRAM chips to offer the largest capacity of 512GB. TSV was first utilized in DRAM in 2014 when Samsung introduced server modules with capacities up to 256GB.
The 512GB DDR5 modules are currently under different sampling and product verifications. We will have to wait and see when these modules are available for purchase.
