Memory chipmaker SK Hynix has offered a first look at its DDR5 plans, confirming that it aims to kick start mass-production of the DRAM in 2020.
Although we’ve known that SK Hynix has been working away behind the scenes on the world’s first 1Ynm 16 GB DDR5 DRAM since the tail end of 2018, this is the first time we’ve been privy to some juicy new details about the next-gen tech.
SK Hynix says the primary goal of DDR5 is to provide a two-times boost in bandwidth on the existing DDR4 standard. Mimicking the jump from DDR3 to DDR4 early last decade, the chipmaker says it has always had its sights set on offering a similar generational leap.
SK Hynix provided a spec sheet of what it’s planning for DDR5. The new DRAM is expected to hit clock speeds from 3200 MHz to 8400 MHz. Of course, the higher end of the spectrum isn’t expected at launch, and manufacturers will need some time to fine-tune the new chips to reach higher speeds.
At launch, it isn’t unreasonable to expect somewhere in the ballpark of 5000 MHz, which would mark a significant jump from even the highest existing 3200 MHz DDR4. As for DIMM sizes, we are looking at 8 GB, 16 GB, 24 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB.
SK Hynix is doubling the bank size to 32 from the existing 16 bank DDR4 alongside a jump to a burst length of 16 to cater for the higher bandwidth of DDR5. SK Hynix explains that this results in a transfer data improvement of x1.5 thanks to 38% higher bandwidth.
Power consumption will also drop to 1.1 V compared to the 1.2 V of DDR4 memory. Other features include on-die ECC, same bank refresh, and JEDEC-specified differential feedback equalization.
As for when we can expect DDR5 to be widely available to consumers, the end of 2021 or early 2022 appears likely.