Samsung Begins Mass Production of 12 GB LPDDR4X for Smartphones
Samsung announced late on Wednesday that it had started volume production of 12 GB LPDDR4X-4266 memory for high-end smartphones. The chip is currently the highest-density DRAM for mobile applications. The first smartphone to use Samsung's 12 GB LPDDR4X DRAM package will be the company's own Galaxy S10+ handset formally announced last month.
Samsung's 12 GB LPDDR4X package integrates six 16 Gb memory devices featuring a 4266 MT/s data transfer rate at 1.1 Volts and produced using the company's second-generation '10nm-class' process technology (also known as 1y-nm). The 12 GB memory module is 1.1 mm tall, which is a bit higher than standard quad-die LPDDR4X packages (which are thinner than 1 mm), but Samsung has managed to incorporate the device into its latest premium smartphone.
Were the previously announced 12 GB DRAM smartphones using two packages instead of this one thick package?
Related: Samsung Announces 12Gb LPDDR4 DRAM, Could Enable Smartphones With 6 GB of RAM
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(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 17 2019, @12:16AM (5 children)
If it's a Samsung, it's flammable.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday March 17 2019, @12:51AM (4 children)
LPDDR4X DRAM consumes less power than previous generations.
You should really be talking to Samsung's battery division.
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(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday March 17 2019, @01:02AM (3 children)
This. A friend loaned me a Samsung (I think an S6) with a "non-replaceable" battery and even before the ones that caught fire there were the ones with a bad dendrite problem causing the batteries to go from 100 to zero percent in the span of a few seconds. Coincidentally my friend had a similar model to my loaner and it had the exact same problem.
That is why I use Galaxy Rugby pro's. I liked them so much that I buy others off eBay if needed instead of "upgrading" to the latest stupid cosmetic gimmick like those LCD's that wrap around curves. Not as snappy as the latest generation but still does anything smartphoney you have to do and with the bonus of easily-replaceable battery packs, good battery life especially with low-power settings, and minimal default crapware (for disabling) so typical of carrier-sponsored Android phones. And it's relatively and pleasantly small compared to the latest phones that are more tablet than phone.
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Sunday March 17 2019, @01:16AM (2 children)
I'm very surprised to learn that is a real brand name. Guess you can throw it at a brick wall and continue to use it.
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(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday March 17 2019, @01:35AM (1 child)
I have no idea why it was being marketed as "tough," It's only a smartphone with a little rubber on the outside. I've dropped them a few times and they often fly apart in 3 pieces (phone, battery, and backplate) but the good thing is that every single fucking time you put those 3 pieces back together, the phone works flawlessly.
I'd attribute its strength more to its internal design (including the PCBs) than to that silly rubberizing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 18 2019, @04:18AM
Ditto on the reliability. Thought I was the only one left using one.
Though being stuck on 4.1.2 is making compatibility with modern apps problematic.
Keep hoping to find similar reliability in the same form-factor for an update. Still searching.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 17 2019, @01:20AM
Nipping this one in the bud because everyone always asks: These modules support TRR, MAC, and PARA. This means that they have all the hardware mitigation for Rowhammer built-in and usable at negligible (0.1%) performance hit. As long as Samsung picks good mitigation parameters (not all manufacturers do), rowhammer is effectively dead.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 17 2019, @01:42AM (1 child)
It probably does all get used, but I'm wondering how it gets used.
Are apps ran inside a VM to help isolate them?
Is it to buffer video you're recording due to insufficient write speed?
What's using all that memory?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday March 17 2019, @02:23AM
Interesting ideas, but it could come down to Android, apps, or extensions just gobbling up all memory available, with some of it being memory leaks.
Smartphones could be used as a dockable desktop replacement, and Samsung actually has a product for this: Samsung DeX [samsung.com]. I have no idea how many people are actually doing this though.
We will almost certainly see 16 GB of RAM in a smartphone before 2022, matching what many desktops and laptops have.
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