Micron Delivers Industry’s First 1α DRAM Technology

By Tiera Oliver

Associate Editor

Embedded Computing Design

January 28, 2021

News

Micron Delivers Industry’s First 1α DRAM Technology

Micron Technology announced volume shipment of 1α (1-alpha) node DRAM products built using, according to the company, the world’s most advanced DRAM process technology. The technology is designed to offer improvements in bit density, power, and performance.

Micron plans to integrate the 1α node across its DRAM product portfolio this year to support all environments that use DRAM today. The applications for this new DRAM technology are designed for enhancing performance in everything from mobile devices to smart vehicles.   

Micron’s 1α DRAM is also designed to facilitate memory solutions and provide faster LPDDR5 operating speeds for mobile platforms that require suitable LPDRAM performance. According to the company, Micron’s DRAM process technology brings the industry’s lowest-power mobile DRAM, with a 15% improvement in power savings, allowing 5G mobile users to perform more tasks on their smartphones without sacrificing battery life.  

Micron’s memory node supports densities from 8Gb to 16Gb, offering the flexibility to sustain many of Micron’s current DDR4 and LPDDR4 products. Per the company, this reduces the cost of customer requalification within their own product lifecycles. It also ensures better total cost of ownership over the system life in use case scenarios such as embedded automotive solutions, industrial PCs, and edge servers that typically have longer lifespans. 

Micron’s Taiwan fabs have begun volume production of 1α node DRAM, starting with DDR4 memory for compute customers and Crucial consumer PC DRAM products. Micron has also begun sampling LPDDR4 to mobile customers for qualification. The company will introduce additional new products based on this technology throughout calendar 2021.

For more information, visit: micron.com

Tiera Oliver, Associate Editor for Embedded Computing Design, is responsible for web content edits, product news, and constructing stories. She also assists with newsletter updates as well as contributing and editing content for ECD podcasts and the ECD YouTube channel. Before working at ECD, Tiera graduated from Northern Arizona University where she received her B.S. in journalism and political science and worked as a news reporter for the university’s student led newspaper, The Lumberjack.

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