Samsung electronics has announced a new chip that will make it possible for the company, and others, to build smartphones and tablets with up to 4GB of RAM.
The firm has developed the industry's first 8 gigabit LPDDR4 (low power double data rate) mobile DRAM. By combining four of them, a high-end smartphone or tablet would be able to field 4GB of RAM, Samsung said on Monday.
Advanced features
Many expensive smartphones today have 2GB of RAM, while Samsung's own Galaxy Note 3 has 3GB. The memory increase, alongside the performance improvement, offered by the new chip will mean faster, more responsive applications. It will also open the door for more advanced features as well as higher resolution displays, according to the company. The new chip also consumes less power than current chipsets.
The chip will start shipping next year and it will be used by large screen smartphones, tablets and ultra-slim notebooks, according to Samsung. Some of the devices will also have 4K or UHD screens, the company added, though without offering any product details.
Other expected smartphone trends for next year are faster LTE network connections and faster processors.
Qualcomm recently announced the Snapdragon 805 processor, which runs four cores at up to 2.5GHz and is expected to be available in commercial devices in the first half of 2014. The company is also expected to show what its next-generation devices will be powered by at the International CES trade show.
Last week, Samsung posted a message on Twitter asking if followers were ready to unlock Exynos, which is what the company calls its mobile processors, on January 7 2014.
