Industry Expert Blogs

DDR4 SDRAM probably won’t be appearing until 2013 and probably won’t become the mainstream SDRAM technology until 2015 but the new DFI 3.0 preliminary specification from the DDR PHY Interface (DFI) Technical Group goes a long way towards making it possible for ASIC and SoC chips to incorporate DDR4 memory interfaces into their design now so that they’re ready for the future. The DFI specification defines a standard interface between a memory controller (MC) and a memory PHY and the DFI Technical Group includes representatives from ARM, Cadence, Intel, LSI, Samsung, ST-Ericsson, and Synopsys so you know there’s some weight behind this specification. By defining this standard interface, the DFI spec permits independent development of DDR MCs and PHYs, shown below, which gives SoC and Silicon Realization teams more choice.

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