I read on Dailytech that we were getting cheaper / lower voltage DDR3 this year...where is it?

[hifiaudio2]

There was an article a few months ago on Dailytech about DDR3 manufacturing processes changing and we would all be looking at brand new high speed DDR3 with voltages down in the 1.2 - 1.3 ranges. I havent seen any other news of this. Did I miss it?

 

[taltamir]

since 1.5v is the standard for DDR3, i'd expect them to just release new 1.5v with even better timings and max mhz specs. aka, factory overclock it.

 

[Idontcare]

Both Micron and Samsung are going after the 1.35V DDR3 market.

Its a natural byproduct of the node shrinks they need to enable higher density ram chips anyways.

Since I know talta loves the hippie green eco stuff, here's a samsung presentation on the value-add merits of green DDR3

http://www.samsung.com/us/busi...eeningPresentation.pdf

 

[hifiaudio2]

I was thinking that the lower voltage would help with the issues of pushing the Core i7 procs and chipsets past 1.65v and the long term stability... if we got high memory clocks and low latency from a 1.35v chip, that would be great.

So are we supposed to see products based on the new tech soon?

 

[ilkhan]

I thought the "green" DDR3 was 1.2v? Maybe it depends on the node. mmmm. 1.2v 4GB DIMMs for laptops.

 

[taltamir]

ugh, gag me... they use the word GREEN a LOT in that presentation . Also lots of pictures of trees... and did you know the UN is "green" now?

1.2v is the next next green according the chart... which goes DDR3 1.5 to DDR3 1.35 to DDR3 1.2v

according to them a 48GB system can save 13.36 watts... so a 4GB typical home system should save... 1.113 watts by going from 1.5v to 1.35v ram... which is about 1$ a year in 24/7/365 operation. I am willing to invest in power saving... Even though I am not sure they are 100% honest in their predictions of savings. Lets say they are. I will thus be willing to spend up to 30 cents USD per 4GB premium for 1.35v ram... Because I do not run a computer 24/7/365. Which means I MIGHT break even during the lifetime of the memory

 

[hifiaudio2]

yeah I am certainly not very interested in 1 watt savings or fake save the environment issues... just interested in lower voltages supposely being better for overclocked system stability....

 

[ilkhan]

And yet every watt is significant for laptops.
For desktops? not so much.

 

[taltamir]

yea, sarcasm aside, this should be great for overclocking.

 

[Idontcare]

OC'ing headroom is assuming the ram's tolerance to higher voltages (1.65V at that point) is not diminished by way of the manner in which they engineer the chips to function properly at the lowered voltages.

 

[hifiaudio2]

so the real question is... has anyone heard any other news at all about these coming out? Im pretty sure this is the timeframe the original article talked about them launching. Ill try to find that article...was probably from March or so...

 

[n7]

Anything lower than the current JEDEC 1.5v won't be aimed @ enthusiasts; it'll be OEMs.

Maybe later we'll see it in enthusiast RAM, but that definitely won't be the primary market.

 

[taltamir]

the presentation was exclusively about 48GB and above file servers...

 

[Zap]

I think likely these modules will end up in enthusiast kits at standard 1.5v and clocked higher.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Zap
I think likely these modules will end up in enthusiast kits at standard 1.5v and clocked higher.

Yeah its really a question of which is the tail and which is the dog here.

Are 1.35V DDR3 chips just binned out of the main distribution much in the same way that ULV and HE chips are binned out by Intel and AMD?

Or are these 1.35V DDR3 chips really the meat of the distribution of chips engineered to hit these parametrics by design and not by luck and overclocking them by juicing the Vdimm is really going to drive those clocks like crazy at 1.65V?

My suspicion is that the answer is the latter given that we've got node shrinks involved here, which tend to take the parametrics and dial down the Vdimm directly by design as did the 65nm->45nm transition for Kentsfield->Yorkfield.

 

[Emulex]

you just talking UDIMM unbuffered or buffered RDIMM ddr3?

 

[Blain]

Is THIS the DailyTech article you're talking about?

 

[taltamir]

lol @ title... "DDR3 Will be Cheaper, Faster in 2009"... NO! REALLY?
I can make some predictions too:
1. CPUs will be faster and cheaper in 2011
2. GPUs will be faster and cheaper in 2011
3. SSD will be faster and cheaper in 2011
4. you get the point