X is followed by T. SK Hynix accelerates LPDDR5 memory to 9,600 MT/s and no longer calls it LPDDR5X, but LPDDR5T. The “T” stands for Turbo. Compared to LPDDR5X with up to 8,533 MT/s, the throughput increases by 13 percent.
The next level for low-power RAM
LPDDR stands for Low-Power Double Data Rate and is an energy-saving variant of SDRAM that serves as main memory for mobile devices. LPDDR5 with 6,400 MT/s was followed in 2021 by the next speed upgrade LPDDR5X with a maximum of 8,533 MT/s. Even before LPDDR6 appears, SK Hynix now pushes LPDDR5T in between with 9,600 MT/s.
It remains to be seen whether this will also be a new JEDEC standard. So far, the committee responsible for memory standards has not made any such announcement. However, the LPDDR5T from SK Hynix should continue to work in the range of 1.01 volts to 1.12 volts at the operating voltage specified by JEDEC.
Even if the LPDDR5X with 8,533 MT /s was already adopted in the summer of 2021, this memory only came onto the market in November 2022. That's why SK Hynix is now saying that in just two months it will be possible to surpass this class again and take the lead in the market in this respect.
Samples with 16 GB are available
SK Hynix corporate customers are said to have already been supplied with samples of the LPDDR5T being. These are multi-chip packages with 16 GB of storage capacity. This combination of multiple chips is said to achieve a throughput of 77 GB/s. The memory can be used not only for high-end smartphones, but also for the areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning and AR/VR.
Series production in The second half of the year
It will still be a while before the product is launched on the market, because mass production of the LPDDR5T at SK Hynix is not scheduled to begin until the second half of 2023. A “1anm” process is used for this. This means the fourth generation of the 10 nm process. High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) is used again.