All for AI PC, DDR6 and CAMM2 memory standards are finally finalized!

Starting from May 14th, JEDEC (Solid State Technology Association) has held a mobile/client/AI computing forum globally. Thanks to the promotion of AI computing needs, this year's forum has achieved a lot of results, and the LPDDR6 hardware has been pending. The standard has also entered the final finalization period.



Source: Samsung

According to the information released by JEDEC, LPDDR6 (DDR6) has decided to use CAMM2 as its memory standard, replacing the memory standard that has been used for many years. SO-DIMM and DIMM memory standards have also officially brought CAMM2 into the public eye. Although most people do not pay too much attention to memory generation when buying mobile phones and PCs, in the AI ​​era, memory performance will become an important parameter to measure the performance of a device.

So, what exactly does the next generation of LPDDR6 and CAMM2 bring us?

Say goodbye to memory soldering


Let’s take a look at LPDDR6 first. As the next generation of low-power memory, compared with the current mainstream LPDDR5 and LPDDR5x, the speed will be further improved. promote. The lowest rate of LPDDR6 is 10.667Gbps, which is already equivalent to the highest rate of LPDDR5x, much higher than the 6.7Gbps of LPDDR5, while the highest rate of LPDDR6 is 14.4Gbps.

In addition, LPDDR6 will also adopt a new 24-bit wide channel design, allowing the memory bandwidth to reach up to 38.4GB/second, which is much higher than the existing LPDDR5 standard. Thanks to higher data transfer rates and bandwidth, LPDDR6 can better adapt to future AI computing needs, and its performance on AI PCs is far better than existing memory standards.


Image source: JEDEC

Moreover, LPDDR6 also improves the non-upgradeability that LPDDR5 has been criticized for, and this is mainly due to the fact that it was determined some time ago Memory standard - CAMM2.

CAMM2 is one of the new generation memory standards formally determined by JEDEC some time ago. Compared with the existing SO-DIMM and DIMM standards, CAMM2 not only supports higher data transfer rates and lower memory latency, The performance in AI applications is significantly better than the old standard, and it also innovatively supports modular design.



Source: Dell

Although in the eyes of many people, PC memory is removable, this is not the case. Generally speaking, Removable memory is designed based on the DDR standard, and you can also call it a "conventional" memory stick. LPDDR is a "low-power" memory, mainly designed for mobile phones, mobile PCs and other platforms, so it needs to make more compromises in terms of power consumption and hardware size, and has a higher degree of integration.

In order to meet the needs of mobile smart devices under the old memory standards, LPDDR5 is usually directly welded to the memory area of ​​the motherboard, which is what some PC enthusiasts often call "memory soldering."Basically, most thin and light laptops currently use LPDDR5 memory to reduce the thickness of the body and obtain maximum memory performance.

This is why high-end thin and light notebooks such as MacBook and XPS are not as good as cheaper notebooks in terms of memory upgradeability. The non-upgradeability of LPDDR5 also makes it impossible for users to dynamically adjust hardware configurations according to their own needs in thin and light laptops, forcing consumers to purchase new devices, resulting in more waste of resources.



Picture source: wccftech

This flaw may not have had much impact in the past, but in the AI ​​era, the end-side computing of large AI models affects the memory size Both memory and speed have put forward higher requirements, and memory performance will become the focus of many users. The upgradeability brought by CAMM2 will give users more choices.

Judging from the design of CAMM2, although it continues the highly integrated design, modular requirements have been included from the beginning of its formulation, so that CAMM2 can use common interfaces and replace them by itself. In the new generation of With the help of integration technology and design standards, the thickness of CAMM2 is even lower than the current mainstream SO-DIMM.

From the currently released CAMM2 memory design, it can be seen that it is very different from the "memory stick" in most people's traditional concept. It is more like a piece of fiber with welded memory particles and main control. Thin PCB. During installation, you only need to place the PCB version into the designated area and tighten the fixing screws. In order to facilitate user identification, most CAMM2 memories adopt special-shaped designs to minimize the possibility of misoperation by novices.



Source: ComputerBase

It is worth mentioning that CAMM2 also supports DDR standard memory, which is suitable for large PC devices such as desktop PCs. It is also the first time since the DIMM memory standard was launched in 1993 that the PC market has ushered in a truly new standard.

CAMM2, how long do we have to wait?


Although CAMM2 looks very popular, I am afraid there is still a long way to go before it becomes mainstream. Memory is one of the core hardware of all smart terminals at present, and changes to the memory are even more restrictive. One move affects the whole body, so the promotion of new generation memory standards often goes through a very long process.

Take the existing DDR4 and DDR5 as an example. Although DDR5 has become the mainstream of the new generation of mobile devices, DDR4 still occupies a large share in the huge PC market. According to predictions from relevant organizations, it is expected that DDR5 will take one to two years to surpass in market share. By then, at least five years will have passed since the DDR5 standard was proposed.

Even if DDR5 still uses the DIMM memory standard, motherboard and memory manufacturers can adapt without making large-scale changes to the hardware. However, under the influence of cost, market demand and other aspects, so much is still needed. It will take time to gradually replace the previous generation of memory, so you can imagine the resistance that CAMM2 will face when promoting it.



Source: Kingston

From the hardware side, CAMM2 has received support from manufacturers such as Micron, Samsung, Hynix and Loongson Zhongke. Basically covers the current major memory manufacturers. On the product side, Dell mainly used CAMM2 memory in its enterprise product line last year. Starting from this year, manufacturers such as Lenovo began to follow suit and gradually expanded to the consumer line.

The ThinkPad P1 Gen7 released by Lenovo some time ago is equipped with LPDDR5x-7467MT/s LPCAMM2, with a size of 354.40 x 241.20 x 17.05mm. It is positioned as a personal workstation and sells for as high as US$2,619 (approximately 18,962 yuan). .



Source: Lenovo

For comparison, the size of ThinkPad P16v i Gen 2 released at the same time is 365 x 262 x 24.66mm. The core hardware is exactly the same, supporting up to Core Ultra9 185H and RTX 3000 Ada, but the body thickness differs by 7.64mm.

Although the thickness of the fuselage does not entirely depend on the memory module, on the premise that it is replaceable, the DIMM memory module requires much more space than CAMM2. In the case of stacked dual-slot design, the DIMM memory module The module will be at least 5mm thicker than CAMM2.

At least on mobile devices, the advantages of CAMM2 memory are very obvious, but the relative cost is also very high. On the one hand, the current production of CAMM2 memory is very limited, resulting in high procurement costs for manufacturers. On the other hand, Large-scale changes to the motherboard are required, which directly increases the manufacturer's design and manufacturing costs.



Source: fossbytes

Judging from the prices currently available, a 32GB CAMM2 memory costs about US$500 and is DDR5 More than 5 times that of DIMM and SO-DIMM memory. By analogy, the prices of DDR6 and LPDDR6 will probably only be higher. In the early stage, everyone will only look at products in the commercial field.

According to past experience, CAMM2 represented by DDR6 will enter the consumer market as soon as two to three years after its release, and the price will gradually drop to a level acceptable to most users. However, there is also AI demand as the driving force behind CAMM2. If the demand for AI PCs is strong, it will inevitably push memory and hardware manufacturers to accelerate the popularization plan of CAMM2 memory.

For individual users, although CAMM2 will not have any impact on you in the short term, with the popularity of CAMM2, you may find that the thickness of mobile devices on the market is further reduced, and they also have thicker Powerful AI performance support, at least in the upcoming AI PC era, CAMM2 will be an indispensable part.

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