Samsung Unveils 12GB LPDDR4X DRAM Chips To Fuel Next Gen 5G Flagship Smartphones

Samsung Electronics has launched the highest capacity mobile DRAM for smartphones promising it will power next-gen experiences for devices. Samsung's new memory tech is the industry's first 12GB low-power double data rate 4X, or LPDDR4X, package that is optimized for premium smartphones. The new chips provide higher capacity than most ultra-thin notebooks offer, and should give smartphone users plenty of headroom to tackle more demanding applications in the future.

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Samsung promises a seamless user experience for features like multiple-cameras, 2x screen sizes, AI, and 5G connectivity. Samsung notes that the 12GB mobile DRAM will maximize the potential of devices that have more than five cameras and will work well for devices with growing screen sizes, like Samsung's Galaxy Fold smartphone.

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The higher density DRAM promises more fluid multitasking than in the past, along with faster searches when navigating through apps on large and ultra-high resolution screens. While offering higher capacity than in the past, the DRAM is thinner than past offerings with a 1.1mm thickness allowing sleeker smartphone designs.

Samsung reached 12GB capacity by combining six 16Gb LPDDR4X chips that are based on the second-gen 10nm-class process into a single package. The single package and its small size allows for smartphones using the chip to have larger batteries, meaning more runtime for users between charges. While offering high-capacity, the DRAM also provides performance with a data transfer rate of 34.1GB per second and minimizes any increase in power consumption that Samsung notes is inevitably caused by boosting DRAM capacity.

When looking at how DRAM capacity has increased over the last decade, the growth in capacity is impressive. Samsung notes that in 2009 it launched its 50nm-class 1Gb MDDR mobile DRAM offering 256MB capacity. Samsung offers no indication of what devices we might see with the new DRAM inside or when devices using it might launch.