If there’s anything we find confusing for the novice user, it’s the fact that you need to use a dual-channel setup to get the most out of it. Obviously, this is a ploy created to sell more memory kits, which is why the standard hasn’t been improved. However, due to the issue of environmental impact, it becomes worrying, one device does not make a difference, but hundreds of millions do.
It’s time to make the switch from DIMM memory module format
Since time immemorial in terms of computing, all the modules that exist on the market have been DIMM memory, no matter how many pins or contacts we are talking about, there are always 64 of them for the transfer of data, so the buses are 64 bits per socket pair, since the second shares a data bus with the first, but without addressing. This therefore means that manufacturers have had to rely on advances in manufacturing nodes to increase the speed of RAM.
The problem, however, comes when you realize that, like what happens with other chips, RAM requires more and more electrical power. It becomes more efficient based on its data transfer capacity, but not the total it transmits. And all this due to the fact that it depends on the voltage and the clock speed, and here we have to start from the following:
- The power consumed depends on the frequency multiplied by the capacity, which is a constant which does not vary, and by the square of the voltage.
- The higher the voltage, the higher the frequency that can be reached.
However, there is a way that would not increase power consumption, but would involve using wider sockets to allow memory modules with twice the bus width.
The CPU bus is 128 bits
And whether we are talking about Intel or AMD, the bus has not changed and has allowed the use of two DIMM sockets on motherboards. The ideal would be to be able to double the bandwidth to 256 bits. Unfortunately the communication, the RAM is at the periphery and that would mean having to increase the average size of the processors and although the consequences of this would be to have more space for more elements, it is counterproductive, because you add greater intercom latency and lower clock speeds for each core.
The Hidden War Nobody Talks About: LPDDR vs. DDR
For us, the ability to replace and expand RAM is much better than using soldered mobile memory, unfortunately the current LPDDR5 has nothing to envy to DDR5 in terms of performance, moreover, thanks to its more high energy efficiency, it can achieve higher clock speeds and therefore somewhat higher bandwidth than the desktop solution. Of course, the handicap is that it is welded.
And isn’t it possible to solder LPDDR5 memory onto a DIMM PCB and have a single memory standard? Not in vain, DDR5 could also be soldered to the board and its operation would be the same, the memory modules are the same as the graphics card PCBs and M.2 SSD expansion cards. It doesn’t matter what you put on the PCB. Now you will wonder why mention this in the middle of the subject of the future of memory modules.
Well, the explanation is that the number of chips in DDR5 modules is more than in LPDDR5 and that is an extra cost because each chip has to be tested and encapsulated. That’s why many low-cost PC manufacturers opt for LPDDR5. The fact is that today it would be possible to create a “QIMM” module with a 128-bit bus consisting of 4 LPDDR5 chips in a row.
The JEDEC mafia with the memory modules
Coming now to the conclusions, it is clear that the biggest mistake of JEDEC was to limit the bandwidth of memory modules to 64 bits and to maintain this standard for a long time, while making two types of memory compete, but refusing the possibility of install LPDDR5 in RAM modules. Because if that happened, DDR5 would no longer make sense.
Just as we have seen the evolution from SIMMs to DIMMs, we should have seen the evolution to QIMMs from 64-bit to 128-bit a long time ago. Although here we get to the crux of the matter and that is that in this case unless the CPU bus goes from 128 bit to 256 bit it would be like selling half the memory kits today where they have to be purchased in pairs for good performance. Let’s not forget that JEDEC is not an independent organization, but rather the memory manufacturers themselves who agree on standards, availability and prices.
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