Micron Technology has today announced that it has started shipping the world’s first low-power DDR5 DRAM in mass production, which will soon be used in Xiaomi’s upcoming flagship smartphone Mi 10.
This new LPDDR5 RAM is claimed to provide more than a 20% reduction in power use compared to LPDDR4x memory. With this, most of the flagship smartphones launching this year will come with the same LPDDR5 RAM chip.
It makes use of advanced packing technology which enables the company to cram 12 GB of RAM on a single die. The RAM boasts of a transmission rate of up to 6.4 Gbps, which is nearly twice as fast as LPDDR4, and also features 50 percent improvement in data access speed. As for the power consumption, it reduces power consumption by more than 20 percent compared to the previous generation.
As per the company, Micron provides LPDDR5 DRAM with superior power efficiency and faster data access speeds. The company says that it designed LPDDR5 DRAM to address the growing demand for higher memory performance and lower energy consumption across a wide array of markets, including automotive, client PCs and networking systems built for 5G and AI applications.
Micron is now shipping LPDDR5 to customers in 6 GB, 8 GB and 12 GB capacities and at data speeds of 5.5 Gbps and 6.4 Gbps. In the first half of calendar 2020, Micron LPDDR5 will also be available in a UFS-based multichip package (uMCP5) for use in mid- and high-tier smartphones.
Many smartphone makers have now confirmed the use of LPDDR5 RAM on their devices. While Xiaomi Mi 10 series will be among the first, ZTE has also confirmed the same for its Axon 10 Pro smartphone.
Further, Nubia has also confirmed LPDDR5 RAM for its upcoming Red Magic 5G gaming smartphone. It remains to be seen if Samsung is offering the same on its upcoming Galaxy S20 lineup of flagship smartphones.
