Samsung's 1Gb Mobile DRAM

Today Samsung Electronics Co. announced that it has developed the industry’s first one gigabit (Gb) Mobile DRAM (dynamic random access memory) for mobile products, using 80nm process technology. The new chip is also called low-power DDR (double data rate) or synchronous DRAM. It will be more cost effective than other high density mobile solutions and can be used for a wide range of advanced handset applications as well as for digital still cameras, portable media players and portable gaming products.

The power consumption of this new chip drops to about 30% as compared to the double-die stack, 1Gb memory solution widely used today. This monolithic 1Gb Mobile DRAM chip uses the same packaging technique as the 512Mb double-die stack 1Gb package, however it introduces a new temperature-sensing feature. This new temperature-compensated, self-refresh feature maximizes the self-refresh cycle to reduce power drain in standby mode by about 30% over conventional memory chip designs.

Also, the new chip offers a more compact form factor. It is at least 20% thinner than a multi-stack package of 512Mb dies, allowing a single high-density package solution of 1.5Gb or even 2Gb Mobile DRAM memory, for which market demand is expected to grow in 2007.

Samsung Electronics said it plans to mass produce the new chip starting from the second quarter of 2007 when demand for high-density 1Gb mobile DRAM is expected to pick up.