Samsung focuses on speedier DDR3 Chips

SEOUL, S.KOREA: Kicking off mass manufacturing of 2-gigabit (Gb) DDR3 devices using 40-nanomter class process technology, Samsung Electronics Co has ignited hopes that it would reap rich dividends in a market where 2-Gb DDR3 is expected to account for 82 per cent of the total DDR3 DRAM market in units sold by 2012.

It has been foretold by research firms that it would become mainstream DDR3 DRAM product by year 2010.

The Seoul based company has said its 40-nm production process will provide close to 60 per cent rise in productivity over use of a 50-nm process. According to an industry report, DDR3 is the third generation of double-data rate synchronous memory.

DDR3 is expected to become the mainstream DRAM technology by the end of this year. A section of the analysts’ world also feels that DDR3 will not capture meaningful market share this year. Samsung, in the meanwhile, is optimistic.

According to a report quoting Jim Elliot, vice president of memory marketing at Samsung's US subsidiary, Samsung Semiconductor Inc, “the company is seeing market adoption of DDR3 picking up steam”.

It may be recalled here that during April last, Samsung had initiated efforts aimed at sprucing up production of DDR3 memory chips. The move had then come following talk of increased demand, which had been prompted by the launch of the Xeon processor 5500 series by Intel Corp.