Micron Now Shipping LPDDR5 RAM For Next-Gen Snapdragon 865 Flagship 5G Superphones
Good news folks, the era of DDR5 memory is upon us, let's all celebrate! Well, sort of—you may want to buy the cheap champagne instead of the good stuff. Micron announced it is mass producing the world's first low power DDR5 DRAM (LPDDR5), which will find its way into high-end smartphones starting with Xiaomi's Mi 10.
Apologies if we got you excited about DDR5 infiltrating the PC landscape—that will have to wait for another day (though it's coming). For now, LPDDR5 is bound for the mobile segment, and with comes "superior power efficiency" and faster speeds to keep pace with gains in artificial intelligence and 5G connectivity technologies.
"Micron’s leadership in delivering the industry’s first low-power DDR5 DRAM for use in a smartphone will accelerate enablement of 5G and AI applications," said Dr. Raj Talluri, senior vice president and general manager of the Mobile Business Unit at Micron. "Our customers and partners require next-generation memory solutions, based on the latest process technology, that drive unmatched power and performance to support 5G and AI systems."
According to Micron, its LPDDR5 DRAM fits the bill with a 50 percent increase in data access speeds and more than 20 percent improvement in power efficiency, compared to its previous generation LPDDR4x offerings.
Micron's fastest LPDDR4x solutions can hit 4,266Mbps per pin. The jump to LPDDR5 bumps things up to 5.5Gbps and 6.4Gbps, depending on the specific package. Micron says it has begun shipping LPDDR5 to customers in 6GB, 8GB, and 12GB capacities, at those speeds.
Looking ahead, Micron anticipates its memory being available in a UFS-based multichip package (uMCP5) for use in both high-end and even mid-range phones. Micron touts longer battery life as one of the benefits, though we imagine it will be a nominal gain. The performance gains are more interesting to us, and it will be interesting to see how smartphone manufacturers leverage them.
