14 DAY TRIAL // The next generation of computer dynamic random access memory is getting closer with each passing day, and now we get to see Micron's first module based on it.
Micron isn't the first company to demo a DDR4 memory module. Hynix went first, last month, even before JEDEC revealed some key details about the specification.
What we are looking at here is, however, the first module that Micron has ever brought forth.
With a capacity of 4 GB, it is composed of a PCB (printed circuit board) and eight 4 Gb DDR4 chips.
Said chips are constructed using the 30nm manufacturing process and were developed in partnership with Nanya.
"With the JEDEC definition for DDR4 very near finalization, we've put significant effort into ensuring that our first DDR4 product is as JEDEC-compatible as it can be at this final stage of its development," said Brian Shirley, vice president for Micron's DRAM Solutions Group.
"We've provided samples to key partners in the market place with confidence that the die we give them now is the same die we will take into mass production."
Micron intends to produce a complete collection of DDR4 product: RDIMM, LRDIMM, 3DS, SODIMM and UDIMM.
Initial speeds will be of 2,400 megatransfers per second (MT/s), but later modules will climb to 3,200 MT/s.
Intel previously revealed that its Haswell-EX platform would only add DDR4 support in 2014, but Micron is one of the companies who want to speed things up. It is in 2013 that it wants to unleash its new RAM upon the world. Volume production will commence in Q4 2012.
For those wondering, Samsung is the one that didn't much like the idea of DDR4 taking another two years to show up. Alas, even if they do complete their devices by 2013, they won't see much demand if there aren't any motherboards and processors that support them.