SK Hynix (CEO Park Seong-wook) announced on February 9 that the company commercialized the ‘8Gb low-power (LP) DDR4’ it developed on its own for a recently released smartphone for the first time in the industry. This product is a high-capacity, high-speed low-power mobile memory solution sporting the best performance ever. SK Hynix developed it at the end of 2013.

To release a product with the LPDDR4 for the first time in the world, SK Hynix began to talk with major smartphone manufacturers last year. It was confirmed that this product is used in the recently released LG Electronics G Flex 2. The company succeeded in combining the 8Gb LPDDR4 with the latest SoC (System on Chip) and commercializing it, and it began to be used in LGE’s flagship smartphone.

SK Hynix’s 20nm 8Gb LPDDR4 has a data transmission rate in excess of 3200Mbps, double the 1600Mbps of the existing LPDDR3. Its operating voltage is 1.1V lower than that of the LPDDR3 (1.2V), improving power efficiency by more than 30%. As a result, it can provide various high-level functions for end users, and smoothly implement the high-definition display environment.

Recently the importance of memory semiconductors in improving the system performance of mobile devices is gradually increasing. In particular, major smartphone manufacturers at home and abroad, including China, are expected to adopt the LPDDR4 as the key memory solution for their premium products. It is forecast that an increasing number of smartphones will come with the 4GB DRAM in the second half of this year.

SK Hynix said that it would capitalize on the 8Gb LPDDR4 product, which it successfully put in smartphones for the first time in the world, to meet various customer needs.

An SK Hynix insider said, “As we became the first to put the 8Gb LPDDR4 solution for the premium smartphones sold in the market, we laid the foundation for dominating the high-performance mobile DRAM market.”

Samsung Electronics is expanding its response to the LPDDR4. The company decided to put it in several new flagship smartphones like the Galaxy S6 scheduled to be released soon, or is thinking of adopting it.

A market research firm HIS Technology predicted that the LPDDR4 will begin to be used in premium smartphones this year, account for 36% of the mobile DRAM market next year, and emerge as the key product in the market.