New DDR3 Memory Module Released by Micron

Laptops cannot exactly get smaller and thinner without components doing the same, and micron knows this well.

The company has just made the formal introduction of a low-profile single-sided, double data rate 3 (DDR3) SODIMM.

That means a small and thin memory module with chips on a single side.

Made out of 30nm DDR3L-RS components, it has a single-rank, x8 configuration and, though it is pin-to-pin compatible with current connectors, it can fit in smaller notebooks and ultrabooks.

The thickness is key here. Since the RAM chips are on a single side, the module is just 3 mm thick, 35% thinner than the standard.

Next-generation ultrabooks, probably even Haswell-based ones, are very likely to use the memory.

The modules will enter mass production this spring, but samples of the Single-Sided SODIMM connectors will be mass-produced only from June onwards. It is a good thing the module is, as we have said above, backwards compatible.