Memory chip manufacturers start a new round of process competition

Recently, DRAM manufacturers such as Samsung and SK Hynix have rushed to reveal the latest research and development progress of the fifth-generation 1bDRAM. The new-generation products have significantly improved in terms of data processing speed, power consumption, and power consumption. Applications in areas such as smart vehicles, data centers, and artificial intelligence will be more extensive. Manufacturers such as Intel, Nvidia, and AMD have started a new round of orders, and storage manufacturers also regard 1bDRAM as a key product to improve performance. At the same time, storage manufacturers have started research and development on the next-generation process node 1c. It is reported that Samsung will skip 1bDRAM and directly develop 1cDRAM. Facing the current 1b competition and the future 1c competition, storage manufacturers have begun to compete secretly.

For a long time, major memory manufacturers have divided the previous generation of DRAM chips into 1X, 1Y, and 1Z processes. 1Xnm process is equivalent to 16-19nm process technology, 1Ynm is equivalent to 14-16nm process technology, and 1Znm process is equivalent to 12-14nm process technology. . The new generation 1a, 1b and 1c respectively represent 14-12nm, 12-10nm and 10nm and below process technology.

SK hynix focuses on the operating speed of storage products. It is reported that SK Hynix has begun to verify its latest Gen 5(1b) 10nm server DDR5 DRAM with Intel, which can be used with Intel Xeon Scalable Platform server processors.

SK Hynix said its latest DDR5 DRAM can reach a speed of 6.4Gbps, which is a 33% increase compared to the 4.8Gbps of the initial DDR5 sample. It also claims that this product is the fastest DDR5 chip on the market. It uses a high-k metal gate on the chip, adopts EUV lithography technology, and has a 10nm process. Compared with Gen 4 (1a), the power consumption is reduced by 20%. Processing speed increased by 14%.

Samsung, as always, emphasizes R&D and technology leadership, announcing that its 16Gb DDR5 DRAM using 12nm process technology has begun mass production, and has recently completed compatibility testing with AMD. According to Samsung, this product is the industry's most advanced high-performance and low-power DDR5 DRAM.

Among the three storage giants, Micron has taken the lead in the launch time of 1bDRAM, has shipped samples to smartphone manufacturers and chipset partners, and will also adopt new process technology on LPDDR5X memory to provide a maximum rate of 8.5Gbps. It is understood that Micron's 1b process is equivalent to a 15nm process. According to Micron, the energy efficiency of the new process node has increased by about 15%, the bit density has increased by more than 35%, and each chip provides 16Gb capacity.

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