Every other company with DDR4 at Computex 2014 kept mum about it

Jun 13, 2014 07:52 GMT  ·  By

DDR4 memory won't make it out before 2015, and even then, it won't be available to consumers. In fact, mass availability won't factor into things until 2016, most likely. That didn't stop companies from introducing DDR4 modules at Computex though.

Computex is an IT trade show that takes place every year in June, in Taipei, Taiwan. This year, it lasted from June 03 to June 07, giving companies four days to show off their latest toys.

There were several DDR4 memory modules put on display there, with clock speeds higher than the normal DDR3 performance, but a fair bit slower than the maximum achieved via serious overclocking.

None of the ones that brought forth such products actually disclosed the full capabilities of the things, though. More precisely, the CAS latencies were kept secret.

Until GeIL decided to completely disregard the unspoken rule and release the timings of its future collection. And it will be a large collection, it turns out.

CAS latency is the delay time between the moment a memory controller tells the memory module to access a particular memory column on a RAM module, and the moment the data from the given array location is available on the module's output pins.

Thus, the smaller the number, the better a memory module is. One might say that CAS latency is as important as the operational frequency. You know, the one numbered in MHz/GHz.

There are actually several sub-timings that determine the competence of RAM, but between the primary, secondary and tertiary timings, it's the primary ones that matter most.

That's the information that GeIL unveiled for its upcoming series of DDR4. You can see it below, but we'll lay out the highlights. For one thing, there will be GeIL DDR with clock of under 2133 MHz, as bizarre as it sounds. The company is certain that some people will use it. Presumably, there will be CPUs/SoCs that, while compatible with DDR4, will be unable to cope with the faster type out there.

The CAS latency is of C10-C12 for 1600 MHz, and C12-C14 for 1866 MHz. The normal 2133 MHz has C14-C16. Sadly, while the CAS of the 2400 MHz is also known (C15, C16, C18), the ones for 2666 MHz and 3200 MHz have not been announced.

The rest of the traits of the GeIL DDR4 are no different from those of every other such RAM module in the world: 1.2V voltage, 4 GB to 16 GB capacity, and 288/284 pins instead of 280 240 like on DDR3.