Samsung launches single-chip 12GB LPDDR4X part

Samsung has announced the launch of a 12GB LPDDR4X memory package for next-generation smartphones, providing its largest single-package memory capacity yet - and pairing, the company points out, nicely with its 512GB eUFS high-performance non-volatile storage parts.

Designed primarily, Samsung explains, for use in future premium smartphone designs, the Samsung LPDDR4X 12GB package combines six individual 1y-nm - the name given by Samsung to its 10nm-class but-not-actually-10nm process node - 16Gb dies in a single 1.1mm-thick package offering a claimed peak throughput of 34.1GB/s. Its existence all-but guarantees that Samsung's next top-end Galaxy smartphone will include 12GB of RAM as standard, though thus far the company hasn't confirmed any design wins for the part.

'With mass production of the new LPDDR4X, Samsung is now providing a comprehensive line-up of advanced memory to power the new era of smartphones, from 12GB mobile DRAM to 512GB eUFS 3.0 storage,' crows Sewon Chun, executive vice president of memory marketing at Samsung Electronics. 'Moreover, with the LPDDR4X, we're strengthening our position as the premium mobile memory maker best positioned to accommodate rapidly growing demand from global smartphone manufacturers.'

The new part follows on from an 8GB LPDDR4X component launched in July last year and based on the same 1y-nm 16Gb dies. Both, however, are noticeably slower than the company's 8GB LPDDR5 development vehicle, based on eight 8Gb dies, for which Samsung has not provided a planned commercialisation date.

Samsung has indicated it plans to increase the combined supply of its 8GB and 12GB parts more than threefold in the second half of the year, 'to meet the anticipated high demand'.