Micron Technology is a US-based multinational semiconductor company that has operations in Japan and Taiwan for its chipmaking business. And as both Nikkei Asia and ITHome report, the tech giant will start mass-producing advanced DRAM memory chips at its Japanese Hiroshima plant in Q4 this year.

ITHome reports that on a press media visit to Micron’s A3 chip manufacturing factory, Micron‘s Taiwanese division director, Lu Donghui announced that the A3 factory will be introducing extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment in the second half of the year, to prepare early for the mass production of 1-gamma DRAM that is due to launch in 2024.

And as for 1-Beta DRAM Mass Production, it is reported that 1-Beta DRAM will be initially manufactured in Japan, and then the production will switch over to the Taiwanese plant later. For context, the current 1-Alpha DRAM is manufactured in the Taiwanese plant.

And the report by ITHome seems to be valid, as another news outlet, Nikkei Asia has reached out to Chief Business Officer at Micron, Sumit Sadana, regarding the news of 1-Beta DRAM production.

Nikkei Asia quotes Sadana that the company will start mass-producing advanced DRAM memory chips at its Hiroshima plant by the end of the year, which falls in Q4 2022. 

The company is coordinating with the Japanese government and business partners, such as equipment makers, to start producing them in Japan as well, Sadana said in an interview. He did not reveal the size of the investment in the Hiroshima plant but said manufacturing such chips generally requires new equipment and clean rooms.

Micron is expected to determine the scale of its investment based on government subsidies and other factors.

DRAM is used for temporary data storage in a wide variety of electronics, including smartphones and servers. And for Micron’s naming scheme, the company had already mass-produced its 1X, 1Y, 1Z and 1-alpha DRAM. The 1Xnm process is equivalent to 16-19nm, 1Ynm is equivalent to 14-16nm, and the 1Znm process is equivalent to 12-14nm. According to industry sources, the latest 1-alpha, 1-beta and 1-gamma may be equivalent to 14-12nm, 12-10nm and 10nm respectively

Micron has announced in 2021 plans to invest $150 billion in memory manufacturing and research and development worldwide over the next decade. With the company laying out plans for 1-beta production, industry watchers are looking to see where it will manufacture the next-generation 1-gamma DRAM, which is targeted for mass production in 2024.

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(Via 1, Via 2)

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Have you ever encountered a situation where your personal desktop or laptop did not have enough RAM to run a task? Or was your RAM not sufficient enough to prevent the programme from stuttering? And was that task keeping 15 tabs open on Google Chrome? 

If you answered yes to any of the 3 questions above, then Samsung might have the solution for you. Introducing Samsung’s latest DDR5 RAM solution, where technology now enables a user to possess 512GB of DDR5 memory on a single RAM stick.

As one of the current industry-leading suppliers of DDR4 memory, Samsung is planning to take the lead in the development of DDR5 RAM. Recently Samsung posted a video on its YouTube channel, highlighting the latest features of Samsung DDR5-7200 module technology.

Samsung‘s new 512GB DDR5 RAM modules refine the firm’s layer stacking memory packing tech, as used in its latest DDR4 memory modules. In the diagram below, you can compare the difference between Samsung’s 4-layer DDR4 memory chips, with the 8-layer DDR5 chips, both connected using Samsung’s Through Silicon Via technology. 

Through grinding of the silicon layers Samsung has been able to make the constituent dies 40 per cent thinner, and similarly reduced layer spacing – thus these much denser DDR5 integrated chipsets are actually thinner, at 1.0mm vs 1.2mm. In turn, Samsung will be able to manufacture a single 512GB RAM stick with 8 stacked DRAMs connected together.

Last but not least, Samsung claims its DDR5 technology is twice as fast as the previous generation, claiming speeds of up to more than 6400Mbps.

However, the increase in performance does not affect power efficiency because Samsung’s DDR5 technology is actually 30% more power-efficient than its previous generation thanks to the lower required voltages to run the DDR5 RAM.

Samsung has mentioned that it will be supplying DDR5 RAM to data centres, smartphone manufacturers and laptop manufacturers alike. And whether 512GB DDR5 RAM sticks will reach the hands of consumers, is a question reserved to be answered in the 2020s.

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As the electronic devices of today keep getting more technologically advanced year by year, as consumers, we demand more memory and faster speeds for smoother operations across a wide variety of applications. DRAM memory has become an essential electronic component in keeping our devices running smoothly and fast, and there are a lot of RAM options in the market from the latest DDR5 memory to the cheapest DDR3 memory.

However, DDR3 seems to be showing its age in the market, as the technology initially launched in 2007 turns 15 years old today in 2022. With that context in mind, several of the world’s largest DRAM suppliers such as Samsung and SK Hynix have come out to announce that the industry is looking to discontinue the production of DDR3 due to dwindling market demands, and higher demands for its DDR4 and DDR5 options instead.

According to Digitimes, Samsung has already notified its customers that the company will keep taking orders on DDR3 RAM until the end of 2022 and fulfil these orders by the end of 2023. Popular 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB DDR3 memory options are expected to have production ceased by the end of 2022. 

SK Hynix is also reportedly looking forward to phasing out DDR3 SDRAM production, though it is unclear when the company will cease to supply them. The report from Digitimes, also notes that citing industry sources, DRAM maker Micron, on the other hand, has no plans to cease production of DDR3 RAM at the time of publishing. 

Although most electronic devices of today have already transitioned over DDR4 or DDR5 memory for DRAM, there is still a relatively large quantity of inexpensive devices like routers that still use DDR3 memory. In addition, older 2nd hand or refurbished early 2010s laptops that are still in circulation in the market still need DDR3 memory for repairs and replacements.

The discontinuation of production could spell a price hike for the inexpensive electronic devices, as manufacturers will now be using the more expensive DDR4 option instead, and that cost of production in the end would be given back to the consumer. On the bright side, technology is finally saying goodbye to the slower DDR3 memory, and providing a faster user experience for all by transitioning to DDR4 and DDR5 in the future.

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(Via)

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