Technological progress does not stop in front of the Coronavirus. SK Hynix, a well-known memory manufacturer, has thought about describing what they will be the characteristics of the new DDR5, in development since 2017. The step forward will be enormous, in fact, more than doubled performance is expected for the new modules and greater memory density, so much so that you can buy 64 GB RAM banks.
Memory cuts designed for servers rather than for the mass market, which can however also count on smaller sizes suitable for home use. But when will the new DDR5 arrive? Sooner than you might think, at least for the business market.
Super speed, but not immediately
The data that immediately catches the eye on the new DDR5 is the speed. SK Hynix has indeed indicated an operating range between 3200 and 8400 MHz, a huge value when compared to current standards. In fact, some manufacturers have managed to reach 5000 MHz already with DDR4, but with kits costing over € 1000 and taking this technology to the limit. It will therefore take time to see DDR5 at 8400 MHz, probably years, when the production process of these memories has reached full maturity. At least at the beginning it seems more likely that memories will arrive with an operating range between 3200 and 4800 MHz, but with greater energy efficiency. The voltage drops from 1.2 V to 1.1 V, a figure that seems small but that indicates a decrease in consumption of 8-9% with the same bandwidth, which is also useful in terms of temperature to reach higher frequencies.
Another advantage of DDR5 is memory density, higher than the DDR4, which will lead to the realization of 64 GB RAM banks. The increase in bandwidth will also be facilitated by the new DDR5 architecture. The DDR4 communicate via a 72-bit bus (64 bit + 8bit for error checking) on a single channel, the DDR5 instead use two 40-bit channels (32 bit + 8 for error checking). All this should lead to a significant increase in performance, which with mature technology could exceed 50%.
On the price front, nothing is known yet, SK Hynix would like to introduce the new server standard by 2020. Forecasts indicate that DDR5 could represent 22% of the total DRAM market in 2021 and 43% in 2022. Unfortunately, a new slot will be needed to exploit the new RAM, so those of the current DDR4 will not be compatible. It therefore seems likely that availability for the consumer market will arrive in late 2021, when AMD will launch the Ryzen 4 processors and Intel the Alder Lake CPUs, scheduled for next year, if not at the beginning of 2022.