With the Apple Macintosh using LPDDR4X memory and with the “built-in” RAM, suddenly there are criminals out there who claim that the RAM will be that, “built-in”, when in reality what Apple is referring to is the SoC of your computer and RAM are mounted on the same interposer.
But the reason is that the LPDDR4X memory it uses was not designed to be used in a PC but to be soldered directly to the motherboard of a PostPC device, be it a mobile or a tablet and because that Apple has decided to pull off the magic trick of rebranding, renaming the Apple A14X from the iPad with another name like Apple M1.
Many wonder if PC makers are going to follow the same path as Apple and slowly ditch DDR memories, but just look at the roadmaps from AMD and Intel where there are future processors with socket. support for DDR5 memory to see how this is not the case, although pessimistic people want to paint a future of RAM memory soldered to the card without any expansion capacity.
Let me tell you that this is not something that is going to happen to Apple, for some time now Intel and AMD have launched processors that only work with LPDDR type memories and therefore lack the capacity to ‘extension with regard to RAM.
Memories not originally intended for the PC
The HBM, which we will see in some future Intel Xeon models, and the LPDDR were not intended for use as primary RAMs for PCs and therefore were not designed to be placed in DIMMs that allow for extend the RAM to after purchasing the computer.
The HBM needs a complex interposer to which it is connected in conjunction with its processor in order to work and it is impossible to update it, about the LPDDR type memory which we have already talked about before and they were designed for Post-PC devices, so in its specification the possibility of placing multiple memory locations is not covered.
But these memories have an advantage over their peers, which is the amount of energy they need to transmit data, which is much lower and makes it possible to create low-power PCs, that is to say those called “ultra” portable with a consumption of less than 20 W, in which energy must be saved on each side, including expansion ports.
How does not being able to expand RAM benefit PC makers?
In fact, what benefits them is in the stock, a PC made up of several different components placed in a modular fashion means that each of them can fail separately and this requires the manufacturer to have all these parts in stock for the duration of the warranty and shelf. Product life.
On the other hand, with the peripherals soldered and integrated into the board, only one of the elements must fail for the entire board to have to be changed, but it will not be because the objective will be that there is a programmed obsolescence in which your computer has a few years of life before one of its components dies, taking all of the components on the board with it.
In the future, unfortunately, the ability to expand and repair the PC in a localized and modular way will be a differential value between different ranges and more and more we are going to see low-end computers without any expandability. , not just in regards to RAM, something which will affect not only the RAM itself but the rest of the hardware components as well.
Motherboards without the possibility of expanding the RAM? We can’t rule it out
In the future, we might see motherboards that will be sold with the processor and RAM fully soldered to the board, with a few PCIe and USB ports for connecting peripherals of all kinds. These motherboards would not have the usual DIMMs, so it will not be possible to connect standard DIMMs
This means that we can end up with the dystopian future in which just having connections to connect new RAM memory modules is a premium feature that we not only have to pay for with RAM but also with motherboard and even the processor.
And the problem is going to come because a lot of low-end consumers don’t appreciate being able to expand their PC hardware even partially, and that’s what gives hardware assemblers the ability to sell PCs without capacity expansion. Also, keep in mind that the same processors used in the low power laptop line can also be found in the low end desktop PC line.
