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Samsung begins mass production of 1GB GDDR5 chips; may be used in a PS4 Slim?

C

chadskin

Member
8 Gigabit (Gb) = 1 Gigabyte (GB)

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced that it has begun mass-producing the industry’s first 8 gigabit (Gb) GDDR5* DRAM based on the company’s leading-edge 20-nanometer (nm) process technology. GDDR5 is the most widely used discrete graphics memory in the world.
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Juicy part:

Designed for use in graphics cards for PCs and supercomputing applications, and on-board graphics memory for game consoles and notebook PCs, discrete graphics DRAM provides an extensive amount of bandwidth to process large high quality graphically-oriented data streams.
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“We expect that our 8Gb GDDR5 will provide original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with the best graphics memory solution available for game consoles as well as general use notebook PCs,” said Joo Sun Choi, Executive Vice president of Memory Sales and Marketing at Samsung Electronics.
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http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/s...ndustrys-first-8-gigabit-graphics-dram-gddr5/

As it stands, the PS4 uses a total of 16 512MB GDDR5 chips from Samsung. Using 8 1GB chips would bring down cost in various ways, among other benefits.
 
E

Elios83

Member
20/22nm APU + 8 Gigabit GDDR5 chips = high chance for a PS4 redesign and significant price drop later this year.
 
U

USC-fan

Banned
the way PS4 ram is place i do not think it will make the console that much smaller. The ram is set up in clamshell mode already. All this would do would remove the ram from back side of the board.
 
C

Creaking

He touched the black heart of a mod
orochi91 said:
How would a PS4 slim even look like?

Current model is already pretty slick.
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NoctisVsStar said:
How slimmer can it get?
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s_MLB_v_O_f_4743347064_072013.jpg
 
Q

Qassim

Member
I'm more excited for this to lead to higher amounts of VRAM on PC GPUs. There were rumours that 8GB 980s may hit around Q1 2015, so this roughly falls in line with that.
 
E

Elios83

Member
NoctisVsStar said:
How slimmer can it get?
Click to expand...

Something like PS3 Slim vs Slim 2.0 imo, but the biggest thing would be the reduction in manufacturing costs.

USC-fan said:
the way PS4 ram is place i do not think it will make the console that much smaller. The ram is set up in clamshell mode already. All this would do would remove the ram from back side of the board.
Click to expand...

Clamshell 4 chips on one side and 4 on the other :D
Also less chips less power consumption which leads to smaller power supply and heat sink, it's all related.
 
M

Mr_Antimatter

Member
orochi91 said:
How would a PS4 slim even look like?

Current model is already pretty slick.
Click to expand...

I think we'll see them in a 'value engineered' ps4 thick, also the redesigns internally we say for the ps3.

As for what a think would look like? Given the APU was designed for tablet level application, maybe as some as the Ps2 slim ratio wise to the ps2, if but a bit thicker for the added cooling and HDD stuff.
 
S

Skux

Member
I just want a PS4 slim to use mechanical buttons instead of the capacative ones that Sony has a love affair with. The "always ejecting" problem due to the rubber foot expanding and touching the button has been an annoyance for thousands of PS4 owners.
 
S

sdornan

Member
I bet it will be an internal redesign if anything. The Xbox 360 went through lots of die shrinks and system board changes before the slim.
 
ComputerBlue

ComputerBlue

Member
orochi91 said:
How would a PS4 slim even look like?

Current model is already pretty slick.
Click to expand...

Thinking about the size of the original PS2 vs. the slim. That was a huge difference in size. Don't think we'll see anything like that here though.

This could just be the insides though, and not a different model visually. Or nothing really.
 
T

TimeEffect

Member
Er, how big of a deal is this for price drops?

A $299 PS4 slim would be crazy so soon in the lifecycle.

Though I think a $50 price cut for the slims and a $399 main price with bundles to move out remaining original models would be pretty great
 
S

stryke

Member
USC-fan said:
the way PS4 ram is place i do not think it will make the console that much smaller. The ram is set up in clamshell mode already. All this would do would remove the ram from back side of the board.
Click to expand...

They could maintain the clamshell arrangement and go with 4 on each side. Probably doesn't shave off space to warrant a whole redesign though, may have to wait for the die shrinkage for that to happen.
 
O

orochi91

Member
Derpyduck said:
I'll gladly take a slightly bigger unit if it means less fan noise.
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If I were you, I'd send that PS4 back to Sony and get it replaced.

Keep doing that until you get a proper one.

I'm eternally grateful mine has been silent since day 1.

Mr_Antimatter said:
I think we'll see them in a 'value engineered' ps4 thick, also the redesigns internally we say for the ps3.

As for what a think would look like? Given the APU was designed for tablet level application, maybe as some as the Ps2 slim ratio wise to the ps2, if but a bit thicker for the added cooling and HDD stuff.
Click to expand...

If PS4 slim can get as thin as the PS2 Slim model, then I'd buy one in a heart beat.
 
B

Brad Grenz

Member
There's no reason to actually slim down the form factor yet. They'll just keep cost reducing the guts of the console for a few more years.
 
P

pooptest

Member
Qassim said:
I'm more excited for this to lead to higher amounts of VRAM on PC GPUs. There were rumours that 8GB 980s may hit around Q1 2015, so this roughly falls in line with that.
Click to expand...

If they're hitting Q1, then they're probably past the point where they'll be switching memory chips.
 
A

anexanhume

Member
Skux said:
Why choose 8x1GB chips? Wouldn't 2x4GB be better still? (if you were to use them in a PS4).
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Not that simple. As others have pointed out, no one is making those. You'd also need the chips to be twice as wide on their data bus. The current PS4 memory is in clamshell mode where each of the 256 data lines is shared by two chips on opposing sides of the PCB. With 1GB chips, you can get rid of clamshell mode and only have one chip using any one data line. So that's 8 chips with 32 data bit lines or 16 chips sharing those lines in twos.

To do 4 chips, you need 64 bit data addresses. Eventually, your perimeter to data line ratio will become so small that you'd need to artificially increase the size of the chip to be able to fit all of the data lines going to it.

Either way, less chips means less cost, smaller and simpler PCB, less heat, etc.

Eventually they may get the APU power consumption down enough with chips to do stacked RAM. Then we'll see really small PCBs in comparison.
 
n0razi

n0razi

Member
ps4, wii, and wii u already are slim enough for a home console.... wii and wii u cheat with the power brick though
 
D

Doctoglethorpe

Member
Admittedly insane, I'd rather see a fatter, quieter model, but this stuff would mean less heat which is cool too.

Edit: also lol at the 1Gb edit.
 
T

TC McQueen

Member
If only this had happened six months ago. Then everyone who bought a GTX 970/980 would only have to worry about working with 4 chips while overclocking instead of however many there are.
 
U

USC-fan

Banned
stryke said:
They could maintain the clamshell arrangement and go with 4 on each side. Probably doesn't shave off space to warrant a whole redesign though, may have to wait for the die shrinkage for that to happen.
Click to expand...

Elios83 said:
Clamshell 4 chips on one side and 4 on the other :D
Also less chips less power consumption which leads to smaller power supply and heat sink, it's all related.
Click to expand...

It been a while since i look into this but im pretty sure that with the memory bus they used they couldnt use the ram in this set up.
 
Shin-Ra

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
Brad Grenz said:
There's no reason to actually slim down the form factor yet. They'll just keep cost reducing the guts of the console for a few more years.
Click to expand...
They'll do the super slim form factor once several major components can be reduced. If the timing doesn't match up there'll be another interim internal revision first. Slimming down also reduces shipping costs with smaller packaging.
 
G

Goodacre0081

Member
people need to stop taking the word "slim" so seriously. it's a hardware revision, just like all the other console re-designs we've seen over the years.
 
O

onQ123

Member
USC-fan said:
the way PS4 ram is place i do not think it will make the console that much smaller. The ram is set up in clamshell mode already. All this would do would remove the ram from back side of the board.
Click to expand...
Couldn't they go from 8 on both sides to 4 on both sides?
 
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