News

Samsung begins producing new 20nm-class DDR3 RAM for mobile devices that’s smaller, better, faster, stronger

22

Samsung 20nm 4Gb DDR3 RAM resized

When it comes to smartphone components, most people immediately attribute a device’s overall speed to its processor, much like the car engine, and they’d be right — partly. With the CPU wars still fresh in everyone’s mind, will throwing a few extra cores in a device really going to provide for a dramatic increase in speed? Probably not. But there’s another vital system component most people forget when judging a smartphone’s speed: RAM.

The unsung hero of smartphones, ever since 2GB became a staple, most apps used on a daily basis are just hanging out, chilling in a phone’s RAM, waiting to be summoned up by the user (as opposed to opening from a cold stop via the CPU). In the Galaxy S4, we’ve finally seen Samsung upgrade the RAM — not in size, but in speed — opting for a faster DDR3 (as opposed to the DDR2 found in the previous gen Galaxy S).

It looks like Samsung isn’t about to stop there. Today, Samsung has officially announced their 4Gb 20 nanometer-class low power DDR3 RAM for mobile devices, promising speeds of 2,133 Mbps. That’s about a 30% increase in speed over previous 30-nnm DDR3 RAM (and almost double that of DDR2). The best part? A 20% decrease in power consumption. Yum.

Samsung announced their plans to ramp up production of their latest generation mobile RAM sometime later this year. No word on when we can expect it in Android devices, but I’d guess sometime in 2014 and I’m already frothing at the mouth.

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

Paranoid Android custom ROM to introduce Chat Head-like notification and multitasking system

Previous article

Sony Honami debuting at IFA 2013 with 20MP camera, Snapdragon 800 CPU, and more [RUMOR]

Next article

You may also like

22 Comments

  1. I love that you used the word, “summoned.”

  2. 4GB ddr3 ram, octa core, metal/aluminum finish, 64GB internal storage note 3 anyone? That’s the phone I want in my pocket at the end of the year.

    1. I would upgrade from my note 2 to this, especially considering it will more than likely have a larger battery as well. Also, I will be the odd duck out and want an Intel Sivermont based variant.

    2. Just what I was thinking, if Sammy puts this in the note 3 hell game over!

      1. Don’t forget AOSP!

    3. 3GB RAM rumored.

      (I just hope they stick with plastic, as it’s better overall VS metal in all respects except the nebulous and highly subject “premium feel” department.)

      1. Here, here! So sick of hearing how something “feels premium”. I could make a crappy phone “feel premium” by putting a case made out of mink on it.

        1. I want to see the renderings!

      2. YES!

      3. And hey let’s face it it FEELS PREMIUM for like 20 Minutes then you put a case over it lol

    4. Correction: that’s the phablet I want in my backpack… The rumored 6 inches, not to mention the increase in dimensions from the Note 2 (rumor) will be way too bi for my pockets…
      But… I must have.

    5. flexible display as well rumored

  3. Samsung will win this spec war (not just battles) inside out

  4. Ok, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited for this, however…… I’ll be bursting with excitement when this thing takes flight:
    http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/03/hybrid-memory-cube-receives-its-finished-spec/
    Also interesting to note, Samsung is one of the members of the HMC consortium
    (HMC = Hybrid Memory Cube)
    http://www.micron.com/products/hybrid-memory-cube
    Supposedly with HMC we should see speeds of about 320Gbps! (as opposed to the 2.1Mbps, which is a decent improvement on current tech) :-P

    Sorry, I don’t mean to be a buzzkill, but when I saw this article, I couldn’t help but think of HMC :)

    1. HMC is farther out then this bump is so that is a long term improvement while this can be put it a whole lot faster

    2. Thanks!

  5. Now that that that that makes you stronger

  6. I hope they stick this in the Galaxy Note 3 with 64gb internal storage on launch date and a better battery than on the Note II, then I’ll certainly buy it, don’t even care how much it would cost

  7. If they made Note 3 with this, it would equate to…

    http://youtu.be/nQ4ebbH3nZs

  8. Note 3 will be the first 4 GB RAM phone i bet. Followed by the nexus 5

  9. So is the US version DDR3 as well?

  10. Your title made me open up youtube and watch this video again. Thanks you!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl6RJyZdBSU

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in News