Frank Ferro, senior director of product marketing at Rambus, recently told SemiconductorEngineering’s Ed Sperling that he was looking forward to seeing what the company could do for next-gen DDR5 as well as evolving high-bandwidth memory (HBM) interfaces. “The goal is to start to bring the power down through things like better signaling technology for DDR5,” he explained.
Memory + Interfaces
Navigating Big Data analytics
Intel VP and General Manager Ron Kasabian recently described the extraction of meaningful information from raw data as a “key enabler” of the new digital service economy. “In this new era, an organization’s competitive edge increasingly hinges on its ability to turn an avalanche of data into actionable insights that improve operations and guide the creation of essential new products and services,” he wrote in an official Intel blog post.
PayPal deploys ARM-based X-Gene servers
Applied Micro CEO and president Paramesh Gopi recently confirmed that PayPal has “deployed and validated” the ARM-powered X-Gene server-on-a-chip. According to Gopi, Paypal represents one of the many hyperscale data center customers the company is currently engaged with to drive X-Gene adoption.
$9 single-board computer hits over $1 million on Kickstarter
Designed by the Next Thing Co. crew, the $9 Chip single-board computer (SBC) has raised over a million dollars on Kickstarter. Key hardware specs include a 1GHz ARM-based processor and Mali GPU, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, as well as support for VGA or HDMI displays. Meanwhile, an optional PocketChip shield makes the board portable with a 4.3” touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard and 5-hour battery.
Smartwatch teardowns reveal 512MB of memory
Recent teardowns of two popular smartwatches – the Apple Watch Sport and LG Urbane – have confirmed that each device packs 512MB of memory. More specifically, the Apple Watch Sport is equipped with 512MB of Micron’s SDRAM, while the Urbane features 512 MB of Hynix mobile DDR2.
Mobile DRAM to see stable price trends in 2015
Avril Wu, the Assistant Vice President of DRAMeXchange, says he expects mobile DRAM to see stable price trends in 2015. It should be noted that mobile DRAM currently accounts for over 40% of total DRAM production. “Along with server DRAM, mobile memory will bring much needed price stability to the memory industry,” DRAMeXchange researchers explained in a recent analysis.
