Micron ships low-power DDR5 DRAM for high-performance smartphones

Micron Technology has shipped the low-power DDR5 DRAM in mass production to be used in the soon-to-be-released Xiaomi Mi 10 smartphone. As Xiaomi’s memory technology partner, Micron provides LPDDR5 DRAM with superior power efficiency and faster data access speeds to meet growing consumer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G functionality in smartphones.

“Micron’s leadership in delivering the industry’s first low-power DDR5 DRAM for use in a smartphone will accelerate enablement of 5G and AI applications,” said Dr. Raj Talluri, senior vice president and general manager of the Mobile Business Unit at Micron. “Our customers and partners require next-generation memory solutions, based on the latest process technology, that drive unmatched power and performance to support 5G and AI systems. Micron’s LPDDR5 DRAM addresses those requirements with a 50% increase in data access speeds and more than 20% power efficiency compared to previous generations.”

"We value Micron's long-standing leadership and innovation in memory,” said Chang Cheng, vice president at Xiaomi Group. “Micron's LPDDR5 DRAM market-leading features ensure our Xiaomi Mi 10 smartphone will remain power-efficient while still offering incredible performance and greater stability. We believe LPDDR5 will be the standard configuration for all flagship devices in 2020."

Micron designed LPDDR5 DRAM to address the growing demand for higher memory performance and lower energy consumption across a wide array of markets, including automotive, client PCs and networking systems built for 5G and AI applications. LPDDR5 can provide more than a 20% reduction in power use compared to LPDDR4x memory.

The emergence of AI in more applications is driving the need for advanced memory solutions that enable faster and more efficient access to data. Micron LPDDR5 delivers the speed and capacity needed to feed AI engines built directly into mobile processors. These processors rely on high data rates from Micron’s internal LPDDR5 memory to power their machine learning capabilities.

Micron’s next-generation LPDDR5 memory is designed to meet the demands of 5G networks, which will start deploying globally at scale in 2020. Micron LPDDR5 allows 5G smartphones to process data at peak speeds of up to 6.4Gbps, which is critical for preventing 5G data bottlenecks. This capability addresses other emerging technology needs, such as those in autonomous vehicles that require a memory subsystem with a larger bandwidth to support real-time computing and data processing.

Micron is shipping LPDDR5 to customers in capacities of 6GB, 8GB and 12GB and at data speeds of 5.5Gbps and 6.4Gbps. In the first half of calendar 2020, Micron LPDDR5 will also be available in a UFS-based multi chip package (uMCP5) for use in mid- and high-tier smartphones.  The LPDDR5 in a multichip package will also provide longer battery life and higher bandwidth to enable high-performance image processing that was previously reserved for flagship smartphones.