Samsung announced yesterday that it had made the world's largest capacity DDR3 DRAM chip. The chip has a capacity of 4Gb, and Samsung boasts that by using this chip, they could produce memory modules of up to 32GB. The products produced are likely to be targeted at servers initially, as larger capacities would reduce the number of machines required to produce the same collective capacities.
The new modules are developed using Samsung's 50nm technology, which, as well as allowing for higher density, also increases efficiency. The 16GB DDR3 modules would consume 40 percent less energy than 2GB DDR3 modules, which is likely to appeal to data centres and server owners. However, Samsung also said that there would be 8GB DDR3 modules available for desktops and laptops.
The speed of the new 4Gb chips is 1.6 gigabits per second, and there's nothing stopping that being raised later on, as technology advances further. Adoption rates for desktops and laptops are likely to be considerably smaller than server adoption rates, mainly due to the expected high cost, as well as a large portion of the personal computing market still on 32 bit operating systems.
The release of the new memory modules will be appreciated by server owners and data centres, although it's not clear when these will be available. Desktop users can expect to wait a little longer, and even when they are available, the costs are likely to put off many. However, regardless of which market they target, the new memory modules give computer users a glimpse of what we can expect to see in terms of the future of technology.
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