SK Hynix starts mass production of 18GB LPDDR5

The mass production of LPDDR5 is now also starting at SK Hynix so that more and more devices that will also use this type of memory can be expected in the coming months. At this point, it should be remembered that from a technical point of view LPDDR5 has nothing to do with DDR5. LPDDR5 is a consistent further development of the "Low Power Double Data Rate" memory and, according to JEDEC specifications, should enable data rates of 6,400 MT / s. In addition, the power-saving mechanisms are said to have been improved again, so that the memory is not only faster but also more economical than its predecessor.

As early as the summer of 2019, Samsung announced the start of production of LPDDR5 with 12 GBit storage capacity, and a short time later memory with 16 GBit was manufactured. From 2021, Samsung wants to switch its production of the memory to a process with EUV. SK Hynix now wants to manufacture memory chips with a capacity of 18 GB (GByte). This should work with a data rate of LPDDR5-6400. With this, the memory should be 20% faster than is the case with the current LPDDR4-5500.

However, a distinction must be made here between the two use cases. On the one hand, LPDDR can be used on a memory interface with a certain width (for example 2x 32 bit) and then works in dual-channel mode, which is often the case with economical notebooks. The other application is in smartphones, in which the SoC often does not have a particularly wide memory interface and where, in addition to the memory bandwidth, a certain compromise has to be found in terms of capacity.

SK Hynix LPDDR5 18GB

The Tiger Lake processors from Intel have a memory controller that can already handle LPDDR5-5400. However, this combination of processor and memory is not yet in use in practice. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 can also address LPDDR5. In future products, the mobile variants of the Alder Lake processors from Intel are hot candidates that should use LPDDR5.

SK Hynix announced that the ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) Phone 5 will be the first product to use the new memory.