Hynix Semiconductor, one of the leading suppliers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), on Monday formally announced its new GDDR5 chips capable of working at 7GHz. The company will only start shipping those chips next year.

The newly introduced 1Gb GDDR5 capable of operating at 7GHz, or 40% faster compared to chips available now, is built on the company’s 54nm process process technology. In addition to its improved speed, it is also designed to minimize power consumption at 1.35V power supply. Previous-gen GDDR5 DRAMs required 1.5V power supply and could function at up to 4.5GHz.

Hynix’s 1Gb GDDR5 graphics DRAM meets JEDEC standard and the company plans to start volume production in the first half of next year.

Hynix did not reveal whether the new 1Gb GDDR5 chips at 7GHz are already being tested by their main customers – ATI, graphics product group of Advanced Micro Devices, and Nvidia Corp. Theoretically, the new 7GHz memory chips may be used on next-generation GeForce or Radeon graphics cards; but keeping in mind that developers of graphics processors tend to be conservative regarding clock-speeds of DRAMs, the new graphics boards may feature Hynix’s latest chips at lower frequencies.

7GHz GDDR5 chips could provide 224GB/s or 448GB/s peak bandwidth when connected to a processor using 256-bit or 512-bit memory bus, respectively.

Tags: Hynix, GDDR5, 54nm