Earlier this week, Qualcomm unveiled its flagship smartphone chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It is compatible with LPDDR5X DRAM and LPDDR5T DRAM. While Samsung makes the former, its South Korean rival SK Hynix makes LPDDR5T RAM, which is faster than Samsung's LPDDR5X RAM, and it is now ready for next-generation flagship smartphones.
SK Hynix has announced that its LPDDR5T DRAM chips have completed the verification process for compatibility with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. These chips were announced back in January 2023 and are now ready for high-end smartphones. It will be available in a 16GB package, offering a max data rate of 9.6Gbps, which is around 12.5% faster than LPDDR5X DRAM (8.5Gbps). SK Hynix also claims that its new memory chips are the most power-efficient in the class, performing at a very low voltage of just 1.01~1.12V stipulated by the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council).
SK Hynix used the HKMG (High K Metal Gate) process to improve the performance and efficiency of its LPDDR5T RAM chips. These chips operate at 10% lower voltage than LPDDR5X. The company expects its new chips to get significant market share before the launch of the new LPDDR6 DRAM standard.
Ziad Asghar, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Qualcomm, said, “Generative AI applications running on our new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 enables exciting new use cases by executing LLMs and LVMs on device with minimal latency and at the lowest power. Our collaboration with SK Hynix pairs the fastest mobile memory with our latest Snapdragon mobile platform and delivers amazing on-device, ultra-personalized AI experiences such as AI virtual assistants for smartphone users.“
