Samsung has announced a new high-bandwidth GDDR6W memory standard.
The company claims that GDDR6W is “the industry’s first next-generation graphics DRAM technology”, which employs Fan-Out Wafer-Level Packaging (FOWLP) technology to drastically increase memory bandwidth and capacity.
FOWLP technology works by directly mounting memory die on a silicon wafer rather than a printed circuit board (PCB). This enables much finer wiring, as well as reducing the thickness of the overall package and improving heat dissipation.
As the name suggests, GDDR6W is built on the foundation of GDDR6, but by using the aforementioned production technique it doubles the bandwidth and capacity of the standard. Even more impressively, it does so without increasing its footprint, so it should be able to slot into existing hardware designs fairly easily.
Samsung claims that Samsung GDDR6W memory will be “the key to hyper-real gaming and digital twin”. ‘Hyper-real gaming’ is self-explanatory – more memory bandwidth means more detailed and life-like virtual environments in which to play games. Techniques like ray tracing and 8K resolutions require a great deal of bandwidth, which is the main advance here.
Meanwhile, we’ve seen the buzz phrase ‘digital twin’ popping up more and more in recent times, but we suspect it’ll still be unfamiliar to many. It refers to the idea of a virtual like-for-like representation, or simulation, of an object or space. It’s a key concept for the emerging metaverse, where real world items will be mirrored in a VR or AR environment.
The idea of a ‘digital twin’ has been around for a while, but limitations in data processing and transference have held it back. Samsung claims that its new GDDR6W memory will facilitate it.
While commercial products have been announced with GDDR6W support as yet, Samsung claims that it will “expand the application of GDDR6W to small form factor devices such as notebooks as well as new high-performance accelerators used for AI and HPC applications, through cooperation with its GPU partners”.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
