Samsung develops 6 Gb/s memory

San Jose (CA) – Samsung claims it has developed the world’s fastest memory : The GDDR5 (series five, graphics double-data-rate memory) chip is capable of transferring data at a speed of 6 Gb/s.

Targeted for use in game consoles and graphics cards, the memory will scheduled to be released in the first half of 2008 in a 512 Mb (16 Mb x 32) configuration, which is promised to deliver an aggregate image data bandwidth of 24 GB/s. This number tops the specification of currently available 512 Mb 4.0 GHz XDR memory devices, which deliver a peak bandwidth of 16 GB/.

“We’re pushing image enhancement to a limit never before realized, enabling the smoothest, clearest animation that gamers have yet to experience,” said Mueez Deen, marketing director at Samsung Semiconductor, in a prepared statement. “[The memory] will enable the kind of graphics hardware performance that will spur software developers to deliver a new level of eye-popping games.”

The new GDDR5 memory will operate at 1.5 volts, translating into a 20% reduction in power consumption over today’s GDDR3 devices (when running at the same clock speed).

Samsung said samples of the new GDDR5 chip have been delivered to “major graphic processor companies” last month.