Samsung Develops 8-Gigabyte Memory Module

SEOUL, Korea — South Korean electronics company Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has developed a technology that allows it to modularize 32 pieces of a 2Gbit DDR2 DRAM chip together with a logic chip to create a 8GB memory module for a server computer.

To build the 8GB memory module, reportedly the world’s densest of its kind ever for server computers, Samsung used a fully buffered dual in-line memory module (FB-DIMM) technology, a next-generation memory module standard, the company said in a statement.

The FB-DIMM is the industry’s widely-approved new technology, which can process data twice as fast as what can be handled by the existing registered dual in-line memory module (RDIMM) technology. It enables chipmakers to pack the logic chip, called advanced memory buffer (AMB), together with the other memory chips.As microprocessor supplier Intel Corp. will support the FB-DIMM technology with a faster version of its server CPU starting next year, the gravity of the memory system market for a server computer will likely shift from RDIMM-based module and to FB-DIMM technology, Samsung said.

Samsung will widen the range of its FB-DIMM-based memory module product offerings from 512MB module to 8GB, preempting the emerging FB-DIMM modular market, it added.

The FB-DIMM-based 8BG module has an AMB chip in the center and two layers of a double-sided circuit board stacked together. Each layer has two parts of 2Gbit DDR2 DRAM chips.The AMB chip is a type of logic chip that doubles the speed of data-in and data-out between memory chips and CPUs, directly communicating with a memory controller chip.

By speeding up the data transfer, the AMB chip opens the way for an upward of eight memory modules to be used in server computers, compared with the maximum of four modules when they are built with RDIMM technology.