DDR5 | COMING 2018
Last month I finally upgraded my PC to DDR4 RAM from the DRR3 it has been using since I can remember.
Then I saw a headline in an online forum that said DDR5 is primed for release in 2018!
Naturally, curiosity got the best of me and I had to dive in head first to learn more. Here is what I found.
JEDEC will be demoing the DDR5 memory in the next coming months.
For ever half a century, JEDEC has been the leader in developing open standards for the micro-electronics industry.
According to the tech innovator, DRR5 standard will be sampled in June 2018 with completing the standard by end of the year.
The mere idea of the DDR5 standard is creating waves of intrigued among many as it promises to double the memory bandwidth and density of DDR4.
DDR5 also guarantees an increase in power-efficiency although no specs have been released as of yet.
Unfortunately, much like when DDR4 was announced in 2012, it will be a few years before any of us have DRR5 memory available for upgrading our PCs.
The delay is mainly due to the fact that memory controllers in processors and integrated circuits (SoCs) require updates to support DDR5.
The chips typically take around two to three years to develop. DDR4 was finished in 2012 but didn’t begin to become common in mainstream systems until 2015 when Intel and other consumer processors added support.
DDR5 has no association with GDDR5 that was released in 2008. The ten-year-old GDDR5 memory standard is used for graphics cards and gaming consoles.
What the Future of RAM Holds
So, what lies ahead for the future of RAM?
I’m dreading the day I finally update my PC to DDR5 and read another headline announcing the release of DDR6.
All I know for sure is that RAM isn’t going anywhere. Not anytime soon anyways.
But if you do look ahead, there is potential for a memory-free future.
Intel is developing its Optane drives in an attempt to combine the capacity, density, and stability of SSD.
The speed of Intel’s Optane drive is getting close to that of the speed of RAM with ten times the latency.
As computing technology continues to advance, it may eventually eliminate the need for separate bands of RAM altogether, generating the ultimate swing in the way that processing devices work.
Arch Missions Foundation’s so-called Superman memory crystal may be on to something. Until then, I’ll continue to update my Ram and keep an eye out for the headlines.