SK hynix starts supply of world’s fastest mobile DRAM for China's Vivo

SK hynix has started supplying 16-gigabyte packages of Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo, the fastest mobile DRAM available today, to its customers, the company announced Monday.

The world’s second-largest memory chipmaker said it has started shipping its up-to-date product to Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo, which will be using the memory chips in its latest smartphones, the X100 and X100 Pro.

LPDDR is a low-power DRAM for mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, which aims to minimize power consumption and features low-voltage operation.

“LPDDR5T is the optimal memory to maximize the performance of smartphones, with the highest speed ever achieved,” SK hynix said.

The mobile devices will also be packed with MediaTek’s newest flagship mobile AP Dimensity 9300, for which SK hynix has completed performance verification.

The new LPDDR5T can transfer 9.6 gigabits per second, and can process 77GB of data per second, which is equivalent to transferring 15 full high-definition movies in one second, SK hynix explained.

The tech giant also emphasized that it would continue to expand the application range of the product to lead the generational shift in the mobile DRAM sector.

“Smartphones are becoming essential devices for implementing on-device AI technology as the AI era kicks into full swing,” said Park Myoung-soo, vice president and head of DRAM marketing at SK hynix. “There is a growing demand for high-performing, high-capacity mobile DRAM in the market.”

“We will continue to lead the premium DRAM market based on our technological leadership in AI memory while staying in tune with market demands,” Park added.

On-device artificial intelligence technology implements AI capabilities on the device itself, instead of going through computations in a physically separated server. This allows the devices to collect and compute information on their own.

"The DRAM capacity will become more important for on-device AI, as it will decide the smartphone's ability and the speed of which it remembers the user's orders and processes them," an SK hynix official explained under condition of anonymity.

The LPDDR5T 16GB package operates in the ultralow voltage range of 1.01 to 1.12 volts set by the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council. The latest specifications are for the seventh generation, succeeding the series that end with 1, 2, 3, 4, 4X, 5 and 5X, SK hynix said.

In January, SK hynix announced its development of LPDDR5T, which is an upgraded product of the seventh generation, prior to the development of the eighth-generation LPDDR6. The company began mass-producing the new product in the second half of this year.

The latest chip is expected to give a boost to the tech giant's earnings, targeting the mass volume market of smartphones.

In the July-September period, SK hynix logged operating losses of 1.79 trillion won ($1.35 billion) on a consolidated basis, compared with a profit of 1.67 trillion won a year prior.

Sales also decreased 17.5 percent on-year to 9.06 trillion won over the cited period.

The company, however, marked a turnaround in its DRAM business after posting two quarters of losses, thanks to strong sales of its flagship chip products including the high-capacity DDR5 and HBM3.