Increasingly faster processors, AI applications, everything requires faster memory. JEDEC, the chip standards authority, has therefore approved DDR5-8800.

Manufacturers and software applications want ever faster hardware, but everyone has to stick to the available standards. Memory manufacturers need to listen to JEDEC, a central body responsible for chip standards in the memory segment.

Today the limit for memory speed is DDR5-6800. With the new official announcement, this is increased to DDR5-8800. This allows manufacturers to achieve speeds of up to 8,800 Mbit/s.

Establishing the standard does not mean that you can go to the store tomorrow. Memory manufacturers as well as processor manufacturers and motherboard brands must now support this new standard. New hardware still needs to be created and tested. Expect it to be at least two years before we see the first hardware on the market that supports the new standard.

In addition to an increase in speed, the new standard also includes increased security to improve the integrity of the DRAM data. DRAM activations are called Per-Row Activation Counting (PRAC) and are counted accurately at the wordline level. When DRAM with PRAC detects an excessive number of activations, the system is notified to stop traffic.

Full details on DDR5-8800 can be found here.