Elpida Memory has announced that it had completed the development of its DDR3 memory chips, which are to be commercially produced next year. Elpida said that in order to achieve high speeds amid relatively low power consumption it had to use “dual gate” transistors to address leakage issues.

“The goal when developing next-generation DDR3 memory is for it to maintain the benefits of DDR2, such as low-voltage operation, while significantly boosting the speed. Our use of ‘dual gate’ transistors – a first in DRAM – will allow our new 512Mb DDR3 device to achieve the high-performance operation that will be critical for future advanced computing applications,” said Jun Kitano, director of Technical Marketing for Elpida Memory (USA).

Elpida’s 512Mb DDR3 memory devices will operate at up to 1333MHz with 1.5V voltage, which means that the new memory type requires lower power, but will operate at higher clock-speeds. The DDR3 chips will be produced using 90nm process technology, which is already used by Elpida. The new 90nm process technology will incorporate dual-gate transistor tech in order to fight leakage issues.

Elpida's 512 Megabit DDR3 device is expected to ship as customer samples by the end of 2005. Initial production is anticipated for 2006 in accordance with market demand. Elpida also plans to develop higher density DDR3 products such as 1Gb and 2Gb.

Infineon Technology and Samsung Electronics are also expected to ship DDR3 memory in 2006. Memory market research company iSuppli expects DDR3 DRAM products to replace their predecessor DDR2 as the main volume product in 2008. iSuppli forcasts a DDR3 market share of 55% the same year. IDC predicts that the first DDR3 memory will be commercially sold in 2006, whereas in 2009 market share of DDR3 will be 65%.