Samsung unveils industry’s first GDDR7 memory

Samsung recently announced the completion of the industry's first GDDR7 modules. These will go out to partners this year for verification, propelling future development in the graphics industry.

Following the launch of the industry's first 24 Gbps GDDR6 DRAM in 2022, Samsung is now introducing its 16-gigabit GDDR7 product, which translates to 32 Gbps. With these speeds, Samsung's GDDR7 memory is the company's fastest memory to date. Despite high-speed operations, advances in integrated circuit design and packaging provide increased stability.

Samsung's GDDR7 memory has a 1.5-TBps bandwidth, which is 1.4 times that of GDDR6's 1.1 TBps, and a boosted speed per pin of up to 32 Gbps. These are only made possible thanks to the use of the Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) 3 signalling mechanism rather than the Non-Return to Zero (NRZ) signalling method used in earlier generations. As such, PAM3 provides for 50% more data transmission than NRZ.

Compared to GDDR6, the current design is 20% more energy efficient thanks to power-saving technologies optimised for the transfer speeds provided by GDDR7 memory. In addition, Samsung provides a low-operating-voltage option for applications that are particularly concerned with power consumption.

In addition to IC architectural optimisations, an epoxy moulding compound (EMC) with high thermal conductivity is employed for the packaging material to reduce heat production. These enhancements minimise heat resistance by 70% when compared to GDDR6, resulting in steady performance even under load.

KitGuru says: Samsung claims the first products using its GDDR7 memory will release later this year, but it's unclear what will be using it. Nvidia and AMD won't likely launch GDDR7-based cards this year, but we're not so sure about Intel.

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