So, farewell, SO-DIMM. After 1 / 4 century of service in laptop computer, all-in-ones and different compact designs, it appears to be like like the top of the highway for SO-DIMM is in sight. JEDEC committee member and Dell Senior Distinguished Engineer, Tom Schnell, instructed PC World that the brand new ‘CAMM Frequent Spec’ would be the subsequent RAM commonplace for laptops. There already appears to have been quite a lot of progress within the background, with the v0.5 spec already authorized by 20 or so firms within the activity group, and JEDEC anticipated to finalize the v1.0 spec within the second half of this 12 months.
If CAMM sounds acquainted, it could be as a result of Dell’s Precision 7670 laptop computer arrived with DDR5 reminiscence on certainly one of these packages final 12 months. As we talked about on the time, CAMM can slim down laptops, and some grams in weight. It additionally would possibly assist ramp up laptop computer reminiscence loadouts, with Dell promoting the Precision 7670 with CAMM choices as much as 128GB.
The brand new info from PC World editor Gordon Ung’s chat with Tom Schnell helps us weigh up a few of the execs and cons of CAMM, and level to some methods it has progressed from Dell’s pre-JEDEC-approved spec. Apparently, in addition to improved density (extra RAM capability in a smaller house), CAMM is amenable to “scaling to ever larger clock speeds.” Particularly, the brand new info signifies that the DDR5-6400 ‘brick wall’ for SO-DIMMs will likely be shrugged off by CAMMs.
When CAMM reaches units, there are a few tech advances which may assist spur its adoption. We talked about the sooner DDR5 speeds above, however it’s thought that CAMM may actually take off when DDR6 arrives. One other interesting variation could be for including LPDDR(6) reminiscence to laptops. Historically LPDDR reminiscence is soldered, so the brand new spring contact becoming modules would possibly imply a lot better upgradability for the thinnest and lightest units which have a tendency to make use of LPDDR reminiscence.
With the JEDEC CAMM v1.0 spec anticipated to the finalized in H2 2023, units supporting this new reminiscence commonplace are anticipated to debut in 2024. Nowadays the construct value of CAMM is considerably larger than SO-DIMM, so the primary units that includes this reminiscence will most likely be premium laptop computer designs.