Having started to develop DDR5 DRAM in November 2018, SK hynix has provided its partners including Intel with sample products, and has completed various tests and the verification of its functions and compatibility. As a consequence, SK hynix is now in a position to provide customers with products once the DDR5 market becomes active.
SK hynix has conducted the joint-operation of on-site lab, system-level test, and simulation with System-on-Chip (SoC) manufacturers in order to verify the functions of its DDR5 and has validated compatibility of its DDR5 and the major components on the DRAM module including the register clock driver (RCD), which affects DRAM performance and the power management integrated circuit (PMIC).
SK hynix's DDR5 supports transfer rate of 4,800 ~ 5,600 Megabit-per-second (Mbps), which is 1.8 times faster than the previous generation - DDR4. It can also transmit 9 full-HD (FHD) movies (5GB each) per second with a 5,600Mbps transfer rate. Its operating voltage is 1.1V which means that its power consumption is reduced by 20% compared to the DDR4.
Another notable specification of the DDR5 is Error Correcting Code (ECC) inside the chip that can correct even 1-bit-level errors by itself. With the ECC, the reliability of applications will be increased by as much as 20 times.
SK hynix also said DDR5 could build up to 256 Gigabyte (GB) capacity applying through-silicon-via (TSV) technology.
"Intel partnered closely with memory leaders including SK hynix on the DDR5 spec development starting with early architecture concepts through JEDEC standardisation," commented Carolyn Duran, Vice President of Intel's Data Platforms Group and GM of Memory and IO Technologies. "In addition, we worked collaboratively with SK hynix on silicon development by designing and testing prototypes to ensure DDR5 meets its performance goals and are fully ready for our mutual customers."
The DDR5 standard was published by JEDEC (JEDEC Solid State Technology Association) earlier this years. According to market analysts Omdia, the DDR5 market will start to see growth in 2021, and it will take a 10% share of total global DRAM sales in 2022 , increasing to 43% by 2024.
Synopsys, Renesas, Montage Technology, and Rambus have stated their commitment to the continuing cooperation in creating the DDR5 ecosystem.
