Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has developed a new type of random-access memory chip using an innovation known as high-k metal gate technology that can provide more than double the performance of previous-generation memory modules.

Samsung detailed the chip (pictured) today. The company is targeting it at processor-intensive enterprise use cases such as supercomputing, machine learning and analytics. 

RAM chips are made up of numerous tiny circuits known as cells that have become smaller over the years as manufacturers such as Samsung refined their fabrication techniques. The smaller the cells, the more of them can fit onto a single chip, which increases capacity and performance. But there’s a tradeoff: RAM circuits, like all circuits, become more susceptible to a microscopic phenomenon known as quantum tunneling as they shrink in size. 

Memory cells store data in the form of electrons. Quantum tunneling allows those electrons occasionally to leave a cell, an occurrence that, added up, lowers a memory chip’s overall efficiency and as a result reduces performance. High-k metal gate technology, the innovation at the foundation of Samsung’s speedy new chip, increases performance by mitigating the effects of quantum tunneling.

The technology swaps some of the silicon in a chip’s memory cells with a material that is harder for electrons to tunnel through. The result, the company says, is a maximum data transfer speed of 7,200 megabits per second. That’s more than twice the maximum speed supported by DDR4, an industry specification that  powers many of the memory modules on the market today.

Samsung’s speedy new chip is based on DDR5, the latest iteration of the standard, and provides 512 gigabytes of capacity. The chip is made up of four memory “stacks” comprising eight layers each. Every layer, in turn, has room for 16 gigabytes of data and is connected to the rest of the module by miniature electrical connections known as through-silicon vias. Through-silicon vias are more efficient than more traditional wiring technologies because they are embedded directly into the chip, which allows electrons to take a shorter route to their destination.

Increasing memory speeds helps improve overall device performance. A faster RAM module enables a system’s processor to fetch and write data faster as it carries out computations. 

Besides being faster, Samsung says that its new chip also has another advantage: It’s more power efficient. The company is promising an approximately 13% reduction in electricity consumption compared with existing technologies. The increased efficiency will be a boon for edge computing devices and autonomous vehicles, which must balance performance requirements with battery size constraints.

Samsung says it has started sampling chips based on the new technology to customers.

Photo: Samsung