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DDR4 high capacity sticks might become cheaper in the future

Bloodyvalley

Samsung has started mass producing 3D TSV technology based DDR4 modules. This is good news for us, home users, who can't afford $300 RAM sticks.

 

 

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Samsung Electronics, Ltd. announced today that it has started mass producing the industry's first 64 gigabyte (GB), double data rate-4 (DDR4), registered dual Inline memory modules (RDIMMs) that use three dimensional (3D) "through silicon via" (TSV) package technology. The new high-density, high-performance module will play a key role in supporting the continued proliferation of enterprise servers and cloud-based applications, as well as further diversification of data center solutions.

The new RDIMMs include 36 DDR4 DRAM chips, each of which consists of four 4-gigabit (Gb) DDR4 DRAM dies. The low-power chips are manufactured using Samsung's most advanced 20-nanometer (nm) class* process technology and 3D TSV package technology.

 

Samsung's volume production of 3D TSV modules marks a new milestone in the history of memory technology, following the company's initial production of 3D Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory last year. While 3D V-NAND technology embraces high-rise vertical structures of cell arrays inside a monolithic die, 3D TSV is an innovative packaging technology that vertically interconnects stacked dies. With its introduction of the new TSV modules, Samsung has further strengthened its technological leadership in the "3D memory" era.

To build a 3D TSV DRAM package, the DDR4 dies are ground down as thin as a few dozen micrometers, then pierced to contain hundreds of fine holes. They are vertically connected through electrodes that are passed through the holes. As a result, the new 64GB TSV module performs twice as fast as a 64GB module that uses wire bonding packaging, while consuming approximately half the power.

In the future, Samsung believes that it will be able to stack more than four DDR4 dies using its 3D TSV technology, to create even higher density DRAM modules. This will accelerate expansion of the premium memory market, in line with an acceleration of the transition from DDR3 to DDR4 throughout the server market.

Samsung has worked on improving 3D TSV technology since it developed 40nm-class* 8GB DRAM RDIMMs in 2010 and 30nm-class* 32GB DRAM RDIMMs in 2011 using 3D TSV. This year, Samsung started operating a new manufacturing system dedicated to TSV packaging, for mass producing the new server modules.

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Might become cheaper.....

Well of course, tech always become cheaper unless weird things like chip shortage happen.

 

Also I don't really know what is the big deal about the power consumption is, (exept for servers ofc), since as far as I know RAM already uses very little.

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Might become cheaper.....

Well of course, tech always become cheaper unless weird things like chip shortage happen.

 

Also I don't really know what is the big deal about the power consumption is, (exept for servers ofc), since as far as I know RAM already uses very little.

 

When you're operating a system 24/7, and you have say 100 RAM sticks, a hundred less watts per second can amount to a substantial reduction in operating cost.

 

Edit: re-reading your post, in terms of home use, dropping power usage is still a big deal as energy prices (unless we invest in alternative energy technologies) are only going to get more expensive and, for example, dropping from 1.5V to 1.2V per RAM stick could result in tens of thousands of Watts being saved per year.

 

Furthermore, higher capacities mean less RAM sticks required which is even more power saving

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When you're operating a system 24/7, and you have say 100 RAM sticks, a hundred less watts per second can amount to a substantial reduction in operating cost.

 

Furthermore, higher capacities mean less RAM sticks required which is even more power saving

Yeah, that is why I said "exept for servers ofc", but in so many articles about the new DDR4 it seems to be mentioned, which I just think is a bit odd.

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

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Server:

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Yeah, that is why I said "exept for servers ofc", but in so many articles about the new DDR4 it seems to be mentioned, which I just think is a bit odd.

 

See my edit

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See my edit

Well I don't know how many amp's a ram stick runs at, but if I am to believe http://www.buildcomputers.net/power-consumption-of-pc-components.html, then a RAM stick uses about 3 watts, which if left on 24 hours a day for an entire year is about 26 kwh (3*365*24/1000, assuming my math and physics is correct), which in my country equates to about 7.5eu. So if you could shave a few volts (and then probs deciwatts) of the ram stick only saves a few euro's in an entire house hold. Ofc it adds up with all the houses in a country and all the devices people have, but it still seems rather insignificant on the consumer side of things.

 

I won't really get into the whole energy discussion thing, but here (the Netherlands) I've heard that Germany will get a lot of extra energy with all the extra windmills and solar plants and that they will have an excess of energy. (and the whole fossile fuel debate is another point, which is imo more about switching to other equipment then it is about shortage of energy)

 

I think (pure speculation) that switching all lamps off 5 mins earlier each day or switching 1 lamp per house hold to led saves more energy. 

 

And again of course for servers and databases it does makes sense if they have terrabytes of ram and save thousands of watts.

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

Main rig:

i7-4790 - 24GB RAM - GTX 970 - Samsung 840 240GB Evo - 2x 2TB Seagate. - 4 monitors - G710+ - G600 - Zalman Z9U3

Other devices

Oneplus One 64GB Sandstone

Surface Pro 3 - i7 - 256Gb

Surface RT

Server:

SuperMicro something - Xeon e3 1220 V2 - 12GB RAM - 16TB of Seagates 

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That's great Samsung, but you should re-introduce the Low profile Green Memory. I have a pair of 4GB modules that'll go from 1600 C9 to 2400 C11 like a champion. Please do it Sammy. 

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all this said to me was: RAM disks will soon have enough storage to be viable"

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Wait what, 2x performance at half the power?? has the world gone nuts?

 

Anyway even if its not such impressive in final product, samsung is really "pulling rabits out of the hats" with these tech's, very advanced process fabs, 3d nand ssd's that lead the market, memory they always had good if not best ram chips? now DDR4 i like it.

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Wait what, 2x performance at half the power?? has the world gone nuts?

 

Anyway even if its not such impressive in final product, samsung is really "pulling rabits out of the hats" with these tech's, very advanced process fabs, 3d nand ssd's that lead the market, memory they always had good if not best ram chips? now DDR4 i like it.

No no no, Elpida and Micron made the best RAM chips for ages. This new Samsung chip might change that.

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Ha, the headline was the best "no shit sherlock" moment of the day.

 

all this said to me was: RAM disks will soon have enough storage to be viable"

 

Always been viable for me, though I'm not hosting Minecraft anymore, I always used to host it on a RAMdisk.

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this doesnt surprise me, just like everything else in the tech world, it will drop in price when the release hype dies down.

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No no no, Elpida and Micron made the best RAM chips for ages. This new Samsung chip might change that.

 

Funny you said that, considering Elpida makes the most unstable GDDR5 chips

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How do we know this will even work with regular consumer parts? it only talks about servers...

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How do we know this will even work with regular consumer parts? it only talks about servers...

it wont. these are RDIMMS, but in theory, this can be applied to normal UDIMMS and SODIMMS as well. 

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Umm yes its going to come down. Ill just wait a long while to they come down really far. I mean DDR3 right now is just fine for what I need and much more for gaming. 

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In 2020 we'll be thinking: who the hell would buy 2666 RAM? That is so goddamn slow.

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In 2020 we'll be thinking: who the hell would buy 2666 RAM? That is so goddamn slow.

Doubt it. As latencies come down to a reasonable 12 at 2800MHz then maybe, but that's years away.

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Doubt it. As latencies come down to a reasonable 12 at 2800MHz then maybe, but that's years away.

Whoops, wrong thread.

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