SK Hynix is almost ready to produce GDDR6 memory with higher than expected per-pin bandwidth:
In a surprising move, SK Hynix has announced its first memory chips based on the yet-unpublished GDDR6 standard. The new DRAM devices for video cards have capacity of 8 Gb and run at 16 Gbps per pin data rate, which is significantly higher than both standard GDDR5 and Micron's unique GDDR5X format. SK Hynix plans to produce its GDDR6 ICs in volume by early 2018.
GDDR5 memory has been used for top-of-the-range video cards for over seven years, since summer 2008 to present. Throughout its active lifespan, GDDR5 increased its data rate by over two times, from 3.6 Gbps to 9 Gbps, whereas its per chip capacities increased by 16 times from 512 Mb to 8 Gb. In fact, numerous high-end graphics cards, such as NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1060 and 1070, still rely on the GDDR5 technology, which is not going anywhere even after the launch of Micron's GDDR5X with up to 12 Gbps data rate per pin in 2016. As it appears, GDDR6 will be used for high-end graphics cards starting in 2018, just two years after the introduction of GDDR5X.
Previously: Samsung Announces Mass Production of HBM2 DRAM
DDR5 Standard to be Finalized by JEDEC in 2018
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday May 01 2017, @04:52PM (1 child)
The GDDR5X [micron.com] interface seems to rely on a PLL clock, selectable data bus inversion and quad data rate interface for rates up 12 Gbit/s using single ended mode. So how does GDDR6 accomplish 16 Gbit/s ?
(btw, good schematic on page 13)
Some other observations is that the GDDR5X is designed to operate on 1.35 V. That is a voltage level with a very thin noise margin. And..
Note: The operating range and AC timings of a faster speed bin are a superset of all slower speed bins. Therefore it is safe to use a faster bin device as a drop-in replacement of a slower bin device when operated within the frequency range of the slower bin device.
(page 3)
Already present DRAM may actually be faster than its marking tells you.
The circuit board impedance matching, length matching, reflection avoidance, shielding etc.. pain in the %#ยค.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday May 01 2017, @10:40PM
FTA:
Therefore voltage for GDDR6 will likely fall somewhere between 1.2 V and 1.4 V.
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