World's first 6th gen DRAM chip developed in South Korea

SEOUL: SK hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker, said on Thursday it has developed the world's first 16 gigabyte DDR5 chip using the sixth generation of the 10 nanometer chipmaking technology.

According to SK hynix, the new product comes with an improvement in cost competitiveness when compared with the previous generation and also features enhanced productivity by more than 30 per cent through technological innovation in design.

The operating speed of the chip, which is expected to be adopted for high-performance data centres, has also improved by 11 per cent, with power efficiency also improving by more than 9 per cent, Yonhap news agency reported.

SK hynix said the new chip will be ready for mass production within the year to start volume shipment next year.

The new DRAM is expected to help data centres reduce the electricity cost by as much as 30 percent at a time when advancement of artificial intelligence is leading to an increase in power consumption.

"We are committed to providing differentiated values to customers by applying the 1c technology equipped with the best performance and cost competitiveness to our major next-generation products," Kim Jong-hwan, head of SK hynix's DRAM development, said.

Meanwhile, SK hynix plans to begin full-fledged production of its next-generation GDDR7 graphics memory chip in the third quarter.

The GDDR7 boasts industry-leading qualities, with an operating speed of 32 gigabits per second, a 60 percent improvement from the previous generation. When adopted for high-end graphics cards, the product can process data of more than 1.5 terabytes, equivalent to around 300 full-HD movies, in a second.

The new chip also comes with improved power efficiency, by more than 50 percent compared with the previous generation, by adopting new packaging technology that addresses heat issues resulting from its ultra-fast data processing.