JEDEC finally publishes DDR5 standard specs, Intel and AMD may offer consumer support by 2021
The market has been preparing for a DDR5 launch for a few years now, with a few technology milestone announcements from Micron and SK Hynix sprinkled along the way. Initially scheduled to release in 2018 for the server and enterprise sectors, the DDR5 standard is now finally getting JEDEC certifications for the consumer market, as well. JEDEC released the new specs under the JESD79-5 DDR5 standard.
One of the main focuses for the new DDR5 standard is the scalable memory performance, which preserves channel efficiency even when clocks exceed 5-6 GHz. As an added fail-safe, DDR5 DIMMs come with two 40-bit fully independent sub-channels for increased efficiency and improved reliability. The first DDR5 RAM modules are expected to launch with 4.8 GHz clocks, which are 50% higher than the DDR4 EOL speeds of 3.2 GHz. Clocks should hit 6.4 GHz in a few years, essentially doubling the bandwidth of DDR4-3200 DIMMs. Capacities will gradually be increased to 48 and 64 GB per DIMM for consumer PCs and laptops, with a maximum of 1 TB for server and HPC modules.
Besides the support offered by Micron and SK Hynix (two of the companies that pioneered the development of the DDR5 standard), big names such as Intel, AMD and Samsung are now vowing to speed up the rate of adoption for the new standard that will usher in the 4th industrial revolution. For now, the DDR5 standard is only available for the HPC and server sectors, but, with the support offered by Intel and AMD, the consumer market could see DDR5 integration by 2021.