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[News] Samsung Suffers Another Setback as Galaxy S25 Reportedly Features Micron’s LPDDR5 over Its Own


2025-01-03 Semiconductors editor

Ahead of Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event in late January, more details of the upcoming Galaxy S25 series have been disclosed. Surprisingly enough, the model will feature Micron’s mobile DRAM instead of Samsung’s, which marks a blow to Samsung’s memory business, according to a report from South Korean media outlet The Korea Herald.

Notably, Micron has been the secondary mobile DRAM supplier for the Galaxy series for over a decade, but this is the first time it will be the primary supplier, the report adds.

An earlier ZDNet report implied Samsung might be facing difficulties in its cutting-edge mobile DRAM, the 1b DRAM (5th-generation 10nm-class DRAM). While Samsung’s DS Division was expected to deliver 1b LPDDR samples in various capacities, including 12Gb and 16Gb, to the MX Division by last August, they were unable to provide the necessary quantities due to yield problems, as noted by ZDNet.

The final decision was reportedly made by evaluating factors such as performance and price, as noted by The Korea Herald. This move, in a way, indicates even Samsung’s MX division, a long-time customer of its own memory products and part of the same family, acknowledged that the competitor’s offering was superior, the report suggests.

Samsung has been lagging behind its archrival, SK hynix, in HBM, as its HBM3e product is struggling to pass NVIDIA’s verification. The adoption of Micron’s low-power double data rate (LPDDR) now calls for the urgent need for Samsung to make a change to turn the tide on its DRAM technology, as per the report.

LPDDR Progress for Micron and Samsung

According to the Korea Herald, LPDDR is a power-efficient memory primarily used in mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. As AI becomes more prevalent, its importance grows, expanding its usage to AI servers, data centers, and on-device AI.

Before making its presence in Samsung’s Galaxy S25, Micron is already an established figure in the sector of LPDDR. The Korea Herald report notes that NVIDIA’s Blackwell GB200 AI accelerator features 16 Micron LPDDR5X chips. In 2022, Micron developed the first LPDDR5X with a 10nm-class 1b process and later supplied it to the Apple iPhone 15 series, the report adds.

On the other hand, Samsung announced in 2019 that it has begun mass producing the industry’s first 12-gigabit (Gb) LPDDR5 mobile DRAM, which has been optimized for enabling 5G and AI features in future smartphones.

Five years after the debut of LPDDR5, Samsung unveiled an upgraded, faster version of its LPDDR5X DRAM. In April, 2024, Samsung announced the successful development of LPDDR5X, supporting the industry’s fastest operating speed of 10.7Gbps (gigabits per second).

A previous report from the Korean Economic Daily noted that Samsung started supplying its LPDDR4X automotive chip to Qualcomm in August, 2024, while also developing the next-generation LPDDR5 chip for use in Qualcomm and other partners’ chipsets.

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(Photo credit: Micron)

Please note that this article cites information from The Korea HeraldZDNet and Samsung.

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