Samsung announced the completion of the development of the industry’s first GDDR7 DRAM

Samsung has declared the completion of the industry’s inaugural GDDR7 DRAM development, boasting a data I/O interface speed of 32Gbps. Promising a 20% enhancement in energy efficiency compared to GDDR6, Samsung has ushered in a range of novel technologies.

Contrasting with the NRZ/PAM2 or GDDR6X’s PAM4 signal encoding mechanisms used by current GDDR6, GDDR7 adopts the PAM3 signal encoding technique. While NRZ/PAM2 offers 1 bit of data transfer per cycle, and PAM4 provides 2 bits, PAM3 delivers 3 bits of data transfer every two cycles. The first 16Gb GDDR7 DRAM furnishes an impressive bandwidth of 1.536 TB/s under a bit-width of 384 bits, substantially eclipsing the present GeForce RTX 4090’s 1.008 TB/s.

Given the more intricate PAM3 signal encoding technique employed by GDDR7, a more potent controller is required, and the consumption may not necessarily be less than GDDR6. To mitigate this, Samsung has introduced a highly thermally conductive Epoxy Molding Compound (EMC), decreasing the thermal resistance of the GDDR7 package by 70%, thus ensuring the active components do not overheat and maintain stability during high-speed operations.

Samsung has not disclosed when the mass production of GDDR7 DRAM will commence, nor has it specified the process technology employed. Rumors suggest that AMD’s next-generation Radeon RX 8000 series based on the RDNA 4 architecture will support GDDR7, indicating the earliest availability would be next year. Samsung also noted that GDDR7 could be utilized in devices such as laptops, offering low working voltage options, though did not disclose the performance characteristics.

Within the year, GDDR7 will be initially installed for verification in the next-generation systems of Samsung’s main clients. It is anticipated that future applications in artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and automotive will also harness the GDDR7.