Low Power RAM at up to 9.6Gbps

In a bit of a surprise move, SK hynix this week announced a new variant of its LPDDR5 memory technology called LPDDR5T. Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo (LPDDR5T) further increases the clock speed of LPDDR5 type memory. SK hynix says the new memory he can clock as high as 9.6Gbps/pin, which is 13% faster than the top bin. 8.5Gbps LPDDR5X. The company says the memory is currently being sampled to a partner as part of his 16GB, with mass production expected to begin in the second half of this year.

SK hynix has positioned LPDDR5T as an interim memory technology to cover the gap between LPDDR5X and future developments of LPDDR6, offering half the memory bandwidth for customers who want faster speeds than current LPDDR5X memory. Offer something to step up. Currently, that standard only goes up to 8533Mbps, so his LPDDR5 type memory clocked higher than that is technically outside his official JEDEC specs. Still, SK hynix’s announcement was a little unexpected. It’s not uncommon for memory manufacturers to announce new technology ahead of industry standards bodies, but there was no talk of further advancements in LPDDR5 before it hit the market.

Technical details of the new memory are limited at this time. SK hynix was able to confirm that the LPDDR5T runs at the same voltage as his LPDDR5X, with a VDD voltage range of 1.01v to 1.12v (1.05v nominal) and a VDDQ of 0.5v. In addition, as mentioned above, the new memory will max out at a data rate of 9.6Gbps/pin. For the 64-bit part, this means a full data rate of 76.8GB/s. Otherwise, at this point, it’s all appearances that the newly named LPDDR5T is high-clock LPDDR5X because the data rates are out of his LPDDR5X range.

But whatever LPDDR5T is (or not), SK hynix says it intends to create a proper JEDEC standard. The company already says he’s working with JEDEC to standardize the memory technology, and while this doesn’t guarantee that other memory vendors will adopt the specification, it’s likely that LPDDR5T will eventually become a niche memory technology. This indicates that the in some products. This also means that the rest of the relevant technical details should be published in the not too distant future.

In the meantime, as the first LPDDR5T parts, SK hynix plans to ship multi-die chips in x64 configurations. According to his PR office at the company, the company manufactures both his 12Gb and 16Gb dies, so there is a potential range of options for package densities, with the 16GB (128Gbit) package being the largest configuration. . All this RAM is the company’s 1aThis is a 4th generation 10nm process using EUV combined with High-K Metal Gate (HKMG).

SK hynix’s decision to adopt only x64 packages is notable. These high-density packages are typically limited to use in high-end smartphones and other high-performance devices (laptops, servers, etc.). intended market. SK hynix said it expects LPDDR5T’s applications to “expand beyond smartphones into artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR).” LPDDR memory is increasingly used in non-mobile products, so this is not surprising given the high-end nature of the technology. Server hardware vendors especially come to mind as potential customers. These products can easily absorb the increased power consumption of higher memory clock speeds.

SK hynix said it plans to start mass production of LPDDR5T in the second half of this year. So, depending on what time of year production starts and when downstream customers implement the new RAM, it could start showing up in production as easily as the end of the year.