Samsung's 1-Gbyte DRAM Chip To Appear In Portable Devices Next Year

Samsung Electronics reports that in the second quarter of 2007 it will begin mass production of a 1-Gbyte mobile DRAM chip that it says is thinner and more power efficient than other mobile memory chips.

Unveiled Tuesday, the memory utilizes 80-nanometer process technology and is aimed at handset applications, digital cameras, portable media players, and portable gaming products.

Samsung says the 1-Gbyte chip employs packaging techniques in use with 512-Mbyte double-stacked chips, but a feature that maximizes the self-refresh cycle cuts power drain by 30% over memory chip designs currently in use.

Samsung indicates the packaging technology used in the chip could also be used in 1.5-Gbyte and 2-Gbyte mobile DRAM memory chips in the future.

New packaging technology has enabled Samsung to shrink the memory's form factor, enabling developers to combine the DRAM chip with flash memory in multichip configurations, according to the company.