NVIDIA has commissioned Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron to develop SoCEM. This is a new memory module standard invented by NVIDIA, and Micron is reportedly the first to receive a license for mass production. This puts the American memory manufacturer ahead of its South Korean rivals.
According to South Korean media reports, the new SoCEM standard is a memory module invented by NVIDIA that consists of 16 stacked LPDDR5X chips arranged in groups of four.
SoCEM is a new DRAM that connects to the CPU and its primary task is to ensure peak performance for AI accelerators. SoCEM is expected to appear in NVIDIA's next-generation AI GPUs, Rubin, which will be released in 2026.
Unlike HBM (a DRAM connected to the GPU), which connects DRAM using vertical drilling, SoCEM is manufactured using a wire bonding method that connects 16 chips with copper wires. Copper has high thermal conductivity, and its main advantage is that it minimizes the heat generation of individual DRAM chips. According to Micron, the energy efficiency of its latest low-power DRAM is 20% higher than that of its competitors.
NVIDIA's next-generation AI server (with Rubin AI GPUs and Vera CPUs) will use 4 x SoCEM memory modules, which translates to a total of 256 chips based on the number of LPDDR5X memory modules. According to the industry, Micron was able to ship SoCEM memory modules earlier than SK hynix or Samsung due to the introduction of later EUV lithography equipment, the new report states.
This means that, unlike its DRAM manufacturing competitors, which are using EUV to increase DRAM performance, US-based Micron has used low-heat technology while improving memory performance.
SoCEM is not the only example of Micron's advanced technological capabilities. Micron reportedly supplied most of the initial low-power DRAM for this year's Galaxy S25 series, ahead of Samsung Semiconductor. This made Micron the "main memory supplier" for Samsung smartphones for the first time. Micron also developed the world's first LPDDR5X in 2022, which was installed in the iPhone 15 series.
