The DRAM industry is having one of the worst years ever thanks to the global economy and an oversupply of DRAM on the market. The oversupply and low demand has pushed the price of DRAM below what it costs to build in some instances.
Despite the oversupply and low demand for DRAM that has resulted in Qimonda filing for insolvency, Samsung has announced a new DRAM chip built on the 50nm process that it claims is the world's highest density. The chips are 4Gb and offer significantly reduced energy consumption compared to other DRAM chips on the market.
Samsung says that its 4Gb DRAM chips need 1.35 volts to operate compared to 1.5 volts needed by older chips. The firm will use the new 4Gb chips in 16GB RDIMM modules, 8GB UDIMM modules, and 8GB SODIMM modules. That means the new DRAM chips will be used in servers, desktops and notebook computers.
Samsung also says it can use its dual-die package technology to package two of the 4Gb 16GB modules on a package for 32GB of memory, doubling the capacity the previous highest density chip was capable of.
Kevin Lee from Samsung said, "We have leveraged our strength in innovation to develop the first 4-Gb DDR3, in leading the industry to higher DRAM densities."
The maximum speed for the new DRAM chips is 1.6Gbps and using the new parts, a 16GB module will consume 40% less power than a 2Gb DDr3 module thanks to the higher density of the new chips.