Like many China-based semiconductor producers that have been hit with U.S. export restrictions, CXMT is one of the companies that prefers to fly under the U.S. government’s radar, so it rarely shares its achievements publicly. Nonetheless, from time to time, the company has to showcase its latest products to attract potential customers. Recently, the company disclosed that it had developed DDR5-8000 and LPDDR5X-10667 memory devices for PCs and mobile devices, according to @tphuang.
CXMT didn't disclose which fabrication process it used to produce its latest DDR5 and LPDDR5X memory devices, though it is unlikely to be a breakthrough, as the company doesn't have access to the leading-edge fab tools required to build DRAMs using sub-18nm manufacturing technologies. Nonetheless, given the speed bins and capacities offered by CXMT, it has managed to produce advanced DRAMs without leading-edge lithography or other advanced tools, which is surprising in itself.
CXMT’s DDR5 chips with an 8,000 MT/s data transfer rate come in 16 Gb (2 GB) and 24 Gb (3 GB) capacities, thus enabling module makers to build both binary (16 GB, 32 GB, etc.) DIMMs and non-binary DIMMs (24 GB, 48 GB, etc.) for applications that support them. DDR5-8000 is not the highest-speed JEDEC-standardized bin (DDR5-8800 is), so CXMT still has room for further development.
As for LPDDR5X-10667 memory ICs, they will also be available in 12 Gb and 16 Gb capacities, but for some reason, CXMT didn't disclose the capacity of the actual packages that it will sell to smartphone makers and other customers.
We do not know how quickly CXMT can ramp up production of its latest memory devices and whether it can make 24 Gb chips in decent volumes with decent yields.
Launching high-performance, high-capacity memory chips is a major development for CXMT, as it not only proves that the company can continue improving its products on an annual cadence despite sanctions imposed by the U.S. government and its allies, but also serves a broader purpose: ensuring China’s semiconductor self-sufficiency.
At a trade event in China, CXMT has demonstrated a wide range of memory modules aimed at a broad spectrum of devices, including unbuffered DIMMs for PCs, SODIMMs for laptops, CUDIMM and CSODIMMs with clock drivers that are aimed at higher-end desktops and notebooks, as well as RDIMMs, MRDIMMs, and TFF MRDIMMs for servers.
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