RAM News - Page 28

Now that mini-PCs from companies such as ASROCK, ASUS and Zotac are catching up, SO-DIMM overclocking is something that would be interesting to see. G.SKILL did that using ASROCK M8 Barebone system.

G.SKILL managed to do just that, as they were able to overclock its ripjaws SO-DIMM 1.35V C11 2133 MHz to 2400 MHz 12-14-14-25 @ 1.35v.

ASROCK M8 is a barebone PC made for 4th Gen Intel series processors and uses Intel Z87 chipset. The system allows installation a single dual-slot video card with maximum dimension support of up to 290mm x 137mm x 43.5mm with up to TDP support of 200w. The unit also has 802.11 ac+ Bluetooth v4.0 support. M8 barebone system only includes a chassis, a 450w power supply, mini-ITX motherboard, fans and an optical disk drive. The rest of the components such as processors, memory kits and storage drive needs to purchased separately.

Samsung Electronics has started increasing its 25nm DRAM production with the hopes that it can grab a good share of the DRAM market while they still can. The South Korean based chipmaker is taking advantage of the situation courtesy of an accident that broke out at SK Hynix's DRAM production fab in China in September 2013.

Because of the fire that broke out in its plant, one third of the DRAM's production halted. Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology are the only DRAM chipmakers who are close enough to compensate for the production scarcity, including the production of chips for Apple Technology and GDDR5 for video cards.

Samsung Electronics has an advantage since they already have a 25nm DRAM production fab. The majority of DRAM production from Micron is based on 30nm process, and its technology transition to 20nm production won't be completed until the end of 2014. It was only recently when Micron completed its transition to manufacture 25nm chips via its plant in Hiroshima. This fab was formerly owned by Elpida Memory and produced DRAM chips for mobiles.

CES 2014 - It's always fun to find a few diamonds in the rough at CES, and luckily this year held a few as usual. Kingston was demonstrating a whopping 384 GB's of its new DDR4 running in a blacked-out server. For those in the know, there currently isn't a publicly released CPU/chipset combination that supports DDR4 memory.

In order to recieve clearance for this demo, Kingston had to black out key areas of the chassis, which means essentially everything other than the heat sinks and DDR4 sticks. We speculate this is Grantley-EP and Wellsburg PCH. If so, the server supports Thunderbolt and features DDR4 speeds of 2400 and 3200MHz. However, these specs are pure conjecture.

Of course we tried to 'play the angles' to get a view underneath at the new unnannounced chipset. Unfortunately, Kingston delivered on their promise to Intel by making a more detailed analysis of the chipset impossible through use of the large black covers underneath the plexiglass cover.

Mobile memory technology has taken a major leap forward with today's announcement of 8-gigabit low-profile double-data-rate 4 (LPDDR4) mobile DRAM chips from Samsung. The new DRAM chips offer the ability to pack 1GB on a single die, which will most likely lead to many upcoming next-gen smartphones featuring 4GB of RAM.

Samsung says that the new LPDDR4 silicon offers improved efficiency which results in up to 40-percent less power consumption than previously seen. This is possible because the chips are designed to run at just 1.1 volts each. The chips are designed on a 20nm process, which shrinks the package small enough to fit 1GB onto a single chip. With Qualcomm releasing a 64-bit mobile processor next year, and Apple's 64-bit A7 already on the market we could see a major jump in the amount of RAM smartphones house in 2014 and 2015.

"This next-generation LPDDR4 DRAM will contribute significantly to faster growth of the global mobile DRAM market, which will soon comprise the largest share of the entire DRAM market," said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. "We will continue introducing the most advanced mobile DRAM one step ahead of the rest of the industry so that global OEMs can launch innovative mobile devices with exceptional user convenience in the timeliest manner."

We aren't quite at the DDR4 stages yet, but as we do start slotting in DDR4 onto our consumer boards, we could begin to see over the horizon, and spot a new memory standard: MRAM.

This is because the US-Japan alliance is looking for a replacement of the old DRAM technology, with over 20 companies in Japan and US joining forces to develop mass-production techniques for a next-generation chip technology. This new tech is called magnetoresistive random access memory, or MRAM. Those involved include Tokyo Electron, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Renesas Electronics, Hitachi, and US memory giant Micron Technology.

MRAM will see data stored in magnetic storage elements instead of electric charges, or current flows. MRAM will also reportedly have just one-third the power consumption of DRAM, with 10 times the capacity, and wait for it - 10 times the writing speed. This will make the technology perfect for the next, next-generation of smartphones and tablets, too.

If Crucial Memory's promotional page is anything to go by, we could expect DDR4 RAM to be released next month. But, this will require new motherboards, and even if you did that, is there a benefit?

Yes, and it's quite the improvement, and a bigger improvement than we had moving from DDR to DDR2, and even DDR2 to DDR3. DDR4 memory will use 20% less power, deliver speeds of up to 100% faster, and is 100% denser than its predecessor. Most DDR3 is around 1066MHz, but DDR4 kicks things off from 2133MHz, which is a huge increase.

Another benefit is going to be the amount of RAM per stick, with DDR3 seeing 1Gb when it was introduced, and while we have more per stick now, DDR4 will have a sweet 4Gb density. This means we should see much higher GB kits of DDR4, where we should hopefully see kits being at a minimum of 8GB, although I'd like to see 16GB. We should finally see a world of 16GB per module, which will be great for 64GB kits when Haswell-E arrives.

Today Transcend unveiled a new line of memory modules aimed at the high-end enterprise server market. The new DDR3-1866 modules come in 4GB capacities and are featured in both Registered DIMM and Unbuffered ECC DIMM profiles. Transcend says the new DRAM modules are ideal for servers running Intel's Xeon E5-2600 v2 processors for optimal performance.

The company says that each module is constructed with the highest quality DDR3-1866 DRAM chips and have a latency of 13-13-13 with an operating voltage of 1.5V. The modules are said to fully comply with JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standards, which ensure the best performance, compatibility, and stability. Each of the new 4GB DDR3-1866 modules are backed by a lifetime warranty. SKUs are listed below.

Earlier this week I reported on new DDR4 memory from G.Skill, and in that report I included some photos and information on a kit of DDR3 that G.Skill overclocked to an outstanding 3000MHz. Today G.Skill has sent over a video showing further proof of the stability of their DDR3 DIMMs running at 3000MHz.

The video is not very long, but you can clearly see that the DIMMs are running at the reported speed, and that things appear to be stable. This is very exciting and with this new revelation, I bet we will see some new world records coming out of the G.Skill camp very soon!

Today, Crucial announced the launch of its all-new 64GB DDR3L Load-Reduced DIMMs for use in enterprise servers. Crucial says that the new LRDIMMs enable more DIMMs per channel which is able to double the memory capacity per server, and saves companies money by not having to purchase additional machines.

These new 64GB Crucial DDR3L Load-Reduced DIMMs offer up to a 35-percent increase in memory bandwidth when compared to standard DIMMs, and are much more power efficient as they operate on 1.35V over the 1.5V standard found in other DIMMs. The company says that these new memory modules are also compatible with OEM servers and warranties which allows users to upgrade their existing infrastructures without having to shell out the cost for new systems.

"For memory-intensive server applications such as cloud computing, virtualization, and in-memory databases, optimizing the capabilities of new or existing hardware is by far a more cost-effective solution than purchasing additional servers," said Michael Moreland, worldwide DRAM product marketing manager, Crucial. "The new 64GB Crucial LRDIMMs allow servers to reach the maximum amount of installed memory possible, which can enable dramatic performance gains in memory bandwidth and overall server productivity, all while reducing power costs relative to adding additional servers."

This morning extreme performance memory manufacturer G.Skill announced the addition of 15 new DDR3 quad-channel memory kits to its award-winning RipjawsZ lineup of high-performance memory modules. The new kits are designed and optimized for Intel's new Core i7 LGA-2011 and X79 platform otherwise known as Ivy Bridge E.

G,.Skill has significantly raised the clock speeds of the new Ivey E friendly RipjawsZ quad-channel DDR3 kits to unprecedented levels. The company says that the new 16GB (4x4GB) kit will run at 2933MHz while the 64GB (8x8GB) kit speeds along at 2666MHz. In the image below you can see the 2666MHz 64GB kit validated using an Intel i7-4960X CPU on an ASUS X79-Deluxe motherboard.

Additionally G.Skill has taken advantage of the new Ivey Bridge E processors and has lab tested DDR3 memory speeds up to 3000MHz that proved to be stable on air cooling. The image below shows the company's 3000MHz 16GB proof of concept using an Intel i7-4960X and an ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard.