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Samsung wants to set a 2GB RAM standard, begins mass-producing 4-gigabit LPDDR2 chips

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The version of the Galaxy S III headed to Japan’s NTT DoCoMo is just the beginning when it comes to smartphone’s chock full of RAM. That is Samsung’s hope, anyway. The company started making low-power 2GB memory modules for mobile devices last year and is now kicking the chips into mass production. The outlook is that an economy of scale will play into Samsung’s favor and drive down cost enough that its 4 gigabit LPDDR2 chips will become a standard component in high-end smartphones by the end of 2013.

The RAM is based on a 20-nanometer process, making it small enough to fit comfortably in today’ ever-shrinking smartphones. The new modules should be equal if not surpass the efficiency of currently available components while chugging along at 1,066Mbps. It isn’t clear if the chip is the specific model being used in the Japanese GS3 variant, but it seems likely. Even if Samsung’s new RAM doesn’t become the go-to solution for manufacturers, it’s safe to say that 2GB is the next frontier.  LG recently announced the Optimus LTE II, a handset that sports a similar memory configuration.

[via Engadget]

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26 Comments

  1. I want to see evidence of Samsung working on battery life like they promised. I’d love to see a two day Android phone.

    1. razr maxx?

      1. motorola?????? he said he wants to see SAMSUNG following through with their promise

        1. I’d love to see a two day Android phone. he said idiot

          1. mmk… im going to quote, your having a hard time reading… “i want to see evidence of SAMSUNG working on battery life like they promised”

            based off that statement, he wants to see a two day android phone from samsung.

    2. I agree, my SGII is already fast enough. I’d rather have 2 days of battery than more performance than I need. Once phone makers hit the 2 day mark, then they can focus on improving performance that maintains 2 days battery.

  2. That’s what I’m talking about. 2 gigs gives us virtually unlimited RAM in our phones for at least 2 more years I would say.

    1. I’m showing 200-400MB free RAM on my SGII today. What would the extra RAM be used for. There’s only so many apps to realistically cache.

      If it’s lower power than 1GB RAM in SGII, then may as well but what could happen is another level of fragmentation if apps/games are written that require 2GB.

      1. My GSII is at 533MB/784MB right now.

        4 processes running that I frequently use: Web, Pulse, Gmail, and FB.

        I don’t want to kill any of those apps and at the same time, I may open up more apps. Granted having 200MB of free memory is acceptable with Android but with TouchWiz and Android becoming a more rich UI and OS, 2GB of RAM is the next step unless you want your memory to be operating at 80% most of the time.

        I don’t know the technical issues with running at 75/80% but I don’t think that’s beneficial.

        Plus maybe HTC wouldn’t pull the crap they’re pulling with Multitasking.

      2. Not sure about Samsung, but I could sure use 2gb on this HTC phone… tired of watching the UI reload b/c the phone ran out of memory and had to dump the UI

  3. Does anyone know why they don’t produce DDR3 RAM instead of DDR2 RAM? I always thought DDR3 was faster, more power efficient and cheaper than DDR2 RAM..

    1. DDR2 is cheaper.

      1. Are you sure? DDR2 RAM for desktops is is more than twice as expensive as DDR3 RAM as far as I know.

        1. Economies of scale.

          DDR3 is the current standard for desktops, therefore most of the manufacturers have switched the majority of their production lines and are no longer producing DDR2 in the quantities they used to, which makes it more expensive per unit to produce. If both were produced in the same quantities, DDR2 would be cheaper to produce because it’s a less advanced design.

  4. About time

  5. So does this mean the US variant of the sgs3 will also come with 2gbs of ram? If so this phone just keeps getting better and better!

  6. If the US version of the GS3 comes with 2 GB I may have to re-evaluate my initial disappointment. :3

  7. So when it was announced that LG had a phone with 2gigs of ram everyone said what’s the point. But when Samsung does it everyone is craving the idea. Silly kids

    1. people don’t like lg, so people tend to not get excited regardless of what lg is touting. samsung on the other hand is the leading smartphone company with 2011’s best android phone.

  8. Why not just make the phone thicker? I really wouldn’t mind it all that much. Lyk as thick as the HTC G2. That was actually a pretty standard feel.

    And I used the Samsung Memoir. That phone wasn’t thick. Felt alright. *sigh*

  9. 1066 Mbps? I think you mean 1066 Mhz. The bandwidth is actually 4 Gbps, which is what you have in the headline.

    1. No, he’s right. Just check out the press release in Engadget.

  10. Here is an idea….DON’T SELL THEM TO APPLE!

  11. I’m starting to question my decision to go with the (international) SGS3 now. I’m having to go on a 2yr contract for this phone, and with all these new features such as eye tracking and constant listening, is 1GB RAM really going to be enough for the next two years?
    WHY DON’T THEY JUST PUT 2GIGS IN IT LIKE THE JAPANESE VERSION??

  12. i listened to the ac podcast and they talked about why Sammy gave the us version 2 gigs. its because they took out the quad processor which makes the phone and TW to run smoothly and so they had to add the extra ram for TW to run as smooth with a dual as with a quad. So basically a full gig of ram for TW and the other gig for multitasking, etc.

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