Samsung to Produce 4-Gigabyte DDR3 Chip
By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
Samsung Electronics said Wednesday it will begin processing advanced double-data rate 3 (DDR3) memory chips based on a 40-nanometer-level processing technology this month.
The Suwon, Gyeonggi Province-based technology giant said its 4 gigabyte (GB) 40-nanometer DDR3 chip is designed to enhance the energy-efficiency of servers.
``With the launching of the 4GB DDR3 production, Samsung plans to transfer more than 90 percent of its DDR dynamic random access memory (DRAM) production to 40-nanometer level technology by the end of this year,'' a company spokesman Kim Choon-gon said.
``The high-density memory is expected to bring significant power savings to data centers, server systems and high-end notebooks, all of which require greater data storage and data processing capacities,'' the official said.
The 4GB DDR3 DRAM is expected to double the memory capacity of memory modules for servers and desktop computers from existing 2GB DDR DRAM chips.
``At a module density of 16GB, the 4GB-based module can save 35 percent in power consumption and support customer requirements for more energy-efficient designs,'' the spokesman said.
Nano technology is widely regarded as a barometer for a chipmaker's manufacturing skills.
Today's semiconductor chips have millions of minuscule electronic circuits, which are etched into a silicon disk on a nanometer (one billionth of a meter) scale.
A smaller measurement means that the chip circuit consists of thinner electric lines, thereby housing more circuits and storage in the same amount of space.
Such an advantage significantly lowers production costs.
Samsung developed 2GB-based DDR2 DRAM chips in September 2007, while the company launched 1GB-based DDR2 DRAM chips in June 2005 for the first time in the industry.
Thanks to the growing demand for memory-embedded consumer electronics including PCs helped by increased corporate spending for PC replacement, analysts have generally reached a broad consensus over the continuation of the current bullish mood.
But the chief of Samsung's semiconductor division, Kwon Oh-hyun, earlier told The Korea Times that the sector leader is concerned over a possible ``bubble'' in the industry as Samsung wasn't sure whether the boom in chip demand will be real or not.