Samsung Begins Mass Production of 10nm 16Gb LPDDR4X DRAM

With the Galaxy Note 9 unveil just around the corner, Samsung has now announced that it has begun the mass production of its 10-nanometer-class (1y-nm) second generation 16Gb LPDDR4X (Low Power, Double Data Rate, 4X) DRAM. With this LPDDR4X advancement, Samsung will be capable of providing high-capacity 4GB, 6GB, and 8GB LPDDR4X packages. These new DRAM memory chips claim to bring up to 10 percent power reduction, 20 percent thickness reduction, while maintaining the same data rate of 4,266 megabits per second (Mb/s).

Now that it is being mass produced, Samsung may launch the 8GB LPDDR4X mobile DRAM package in the Galaxy Note 9, when it arrives on August 9 next month, or in the Samsung Galaxy S10 scheduled for next year. Samsung claims that this package has been created by combining four of the 10nm-class 16Gb LPDDR4X DRAM chips. This 8GB LPDDR4X mobile DRAM package can realise a data rate of 34.1GB per second and its thickness has been reduced more than 20 percent from the first generation package.

This reduction in thickness will enable manufacturers to design slimmer smartphones, and will improve overall battery efficiency as well. "The advent of 10nm-class mobile DRAM will enable significantly enhanced solutions for next-generation, flagship mobile devices that should first hit the market late this year or the first part of 2019. We will continue to grow our premium DRAM lineup to lead the 'high-performance, high capacity, and low power' memory segment to meet the market demand and strengthen our business competitiveness," Sewon Chun, senior vice president of Memory Sales and Marketing at Samsung Electronics said in a statement.

As mentioned, Samsung is gearing up for the Galaxy Note 9 launch, and rumours claim that the smartphone will sport an Infinity Display, large battery life, dual camera setup, and a rear fingerprint scanner. Specifications tipped include a 6.4-inch QHD+ Super AMOLED Infinity Display with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio. The smartphone might be powered by the upcoming in-house Exynos 9820 SoC, coupled with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of internal storage.