Micron said on Wednesday that it would introduce its first GDDR7 memory chips in the first half of next year. The new type of memory promises to offer higher performance than GDDR6 and GDDR6X, but it will require brand-new memory controllers and therefore GPUs.
“We plan to introduce our next-generation G7 product on our industry-leading 1ß node in the first half of calendar year 2024,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, chief executive of Micron.
GDDR7 SGRAM will be the next generation memory for GPUs that will be used for some of the best graphics cards as well as other devices that require high bandwidth, but do not necessarily need expensive HBM3 memory. Samsung envisions that GDDR7 will offer data transfer speeds in the range of 36 GT/s, though it remains to be seen when the novel type of SGRAM will offer this level of performance.
Earlier this year Cadence revealed that GDDR7 memory will use PAM3 signaling, which promises to let it boast with higher bandwidth compared to GDDR6 (which uses PAM2 or NRZ encoding) without complications and higher power consumption imposed by GDDR6X (which uses PAM4 signaling).
It should be noted that formal introduction of a new type of memory does not necessarily mean its immediate commercial adoption. Since GDDR7 uses a completely different encoding than GDDR6 or GDDR6X, it will require all-new memory controllers and therefore GPUs. While it is logical to expect AMD, Intel, and Nvidia to introduce their next generation GPUs in 2024 or early in 2025, only these three companies know when exactly these graphics processors will ship.
Cadence already has its GDDR7 verification solution, so adopters can ensure that theire controllers and physical interfaces will be compliant with the GDDR7 specification eventually.
