14 DAY TRIAL // Intel's Haswell-E CPUs are around the corner, and DDR4 kits have been coming out for weeks. The same cannot be said about laptop computer parts though.
JEDEC decided it was high time that was remedied, even if there aren't high chances of mobile PCs with DDR4 random access memory coming out before 2015.
Long story short, the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association has announced the JESD209-4 Low Power Double Data Rate 4 specification, or LPDDR4 for short.
It defines LPDDR4 modules with an I/O data rate of 3,200 MT/s and a target speed of 4,266 MT/s, quite a bit beyond the 2,133 MT/s of LPDDR3.
The architecture was completely redesigned to achieve this, changing the 16-bit one-channel die with a 32-bit dual-channel die (16 bits per channel).
The two-channel architecture was key because it reduces the power required to send the large volumes of data needed by the LPDDR4 interface. The clock and address bus are grouped together, you see, improving timings as well.
In layman terms, LPDDR4 is awesome compared to LPDDR3. It's a real shame that we won't see laptops with it before mid-2015 or so. At least we'll have overkill workstations to feast our eyes on between now and then.