On the 19th, Samsung Electronics announced that it had completed the development of the industry’s first Graphics Double Data Rate 7 (GDDR7) DRAM. It will first be installed in next-generation systems of critical customers for verification this year, driving the future growth of the graphics market and further consolidating Samsung’s technological leadership in the field.
Following Samsung’s development of the industry’s first 24Gbps GDDR6 DRAM in 2022, the company’s 16-gigabit (Gb) GDDR7 offering will deliver the industry’s highest speed yet. Innovations in integrated circuit (IC) design and packaging provide stability despite high-speed operations.
“Our GDDR7 DRAM will help elevate user experiences in areas that require outstanding graphics performance, such as workstations, PCs and game consoles, and is expected to expand into future applications such as AI, high-performance computing (HPC) and automotive vehicles,” said Yongcheol Bae, Executive Vice President of Memory Product Planning Team at Samsung Electronics. “The next-generation graphics DRAM will be brought to market in line with industry demand, and we plan on continuing our leadership in the space.”
Samsung’s GDDR7 achieves an impressive bandwidth of 1.5 terabytes per second (TBps), 1.4 times that of GDDR6’s 1.1TBps, and features a boosted speed per pin of up to 32Gbps. The enhancements are made possible by the Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM3) signaling method adopted for the new memory standard instead of the Non-Return to Zero (NRZ) from previous generations. PAM3 allows 50% more data to be transmitted than NRZ within the same signaling cycle.
Significantly, compared with GDDR6, the latest design is 20% more energy efficient with power-saving design technology optimized for high-speed operations. Samsung offers a low-operating voltage option for applications especially mindful of power usage, such as laptops.
An epoxy molding compound (EMC) with high thermal conductivity is used for the packaging material in addition to IC architecture optimization to minimize heat generation. These improvements dramatically reduce thermal resistance by 70% compared to GDDR6, aiding in stable product performance even in conditions with high-speed operations.
By_BK Min, KDFN kdf@kdfnews.com
The summary of this article in Korean is as follows.
■삼성전자, 업계 최초로 '최고 속도 32Gbps' GDDR7 D램 개발
삼성전자가 차세대 그래픽 카드에 활용될 '32Gbps GDDR7(Graphics Double Data Rate) D램'을 업계 최초로 개발했다고 19일 밝혔다. 신제품은 주요 고객사의 차세대 시스템에 탑재돼 연내 검증이 시작될 예정이다.
제품은 향상된 고성능·저전력 특성을 갖춘 16Gb로, 기존 대비 데이터 처리 속도는 1.4배, 전력 효율은 20% 향상됐다.
32Gbps GDDR7 D램을 그래픽 카드에 탑재하면 최대 초당 1.5TB의 데이터를 처리할 수 있다. 이는 기존 최대 1.1TB를 제공하는 GDDR6 대비 1.4배 향상된 성능이다.
삼성전자는 열전도율이 높은 신소재를 EMC 패키지에 적용하고, 회로 설계를 최적화해 고속 동작으로 인한 발열을 최소화했다.
배용철 삼성전자 부사장은 "프리미엄 그래픽 시장 수요에 맞춰 적기에 상용화하고 차세대 그래픽 D램 시장을 지속 선도해 나갈 것"이라고 밝혔다.
사진=삼성전자
박주범 기자 kdf@kdfnews.com
