Samsung has announced the development of an 8GB RAM chip for mobile devices, which could lead to its appearance in the Samsung Galaxy S5 in 2014.
The South Korean tech giant is calling the new chip "the industry’s first eight gigabit (Gb), low power double data rate 4 (LPDDR4), mobile DRAM."
Thanks to a super-small 20nm fabrication process, Samsung has managed to squeeze a full 1GB into a single die. This makes for the largest density in the DRAM component yet - hence the massive 8GB potential.
Having said that, smartphones exploiting this new standard will likely 'only' offer 4GB of RAM.
This new component has implications for performance as well as capacity. Samsung claims that it’s 50 percent faster than its previous solution, the LPDDR3 currently found in the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4.
The LPDDR4 will also consume around 40 percent less power than the previous standard, which should do wonders for battery life. Far more likely, though, is that it will help power even higher resolution mobile displays, and battery life will remain at its current underwhelming level.
Before we get accused of cynicism, check out Samsung’s comments on the application of its new RAM standard:
"With the new chip, Samsung will focus on the premium mobile market including large screen UHD smartphones, tablets and ultra-slim notebooks that offer four times the resolution of full-HD."
It’s looking like 2014 could be the year of the first 4K smartphone - and it could well feature Samsung technology at its core.
Read More: What is 4K?
