DDR5 memory will provide twice the bandwidth of DDR4

Not everyone has made the bump from DDR3 to DDR4 memory, but that hasn't stopped the Joint Electronic Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) from looking ahead to DDR5. In fact, the memory standards consortium announced it working on an official DDR5 specification that will offer more bandwidth and better power efficiency.

"These enhancements, combined with a more user-friendly interface for server and lcient platforms, will enable high performance and improved power management in a wide variety of applications," JEDEC said.

Don't worry if you just upgraded to a Kaby Lake or Ryzen system using DDR4 memory, it isn't going out of style anytime soon. JEDEC won't publish the DDR5 standard until sometime next year. Once the spec is official, it will take some time for hardware makers to adopt it on their platforms.

The group is also working on a next-generation NVDIMM standard for memory modules called NVDIMM-P. NVDIMM modules are non-volatile, meaning they retain their contents after a loss of power or a system crash.

"Increasing server performance requirements are driving the need for more advanced technologies, and the standardization of next generation memory such as DDR5 and the new generation persistent modules NVDIMM-P will be essential to fulfilling those needs," said Mian Quddus, chairm of the JEDEC board of directors.

Quddus noted that work on both standards progressing quickly.

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).