CXMT Announces LPDDR6 Mass Production

Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies) has announced mass production of its next-generation LPDDR6 memory, with the technology set to debut in Xiaomi's upcoming 18 Fold smartphone in September. The announcement puts CXMT ahead of South Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK hynix in publicly confirming both mass production and commercial smartphone deployment of LPDDR6 memory.

Xiaomi Partnership

CXMT said on Saturday that its LPDDR6 memory had "officially entered mass production" and would be used in Xiaomi's 18 Fold. Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun separately confirmed that the company's new Xring O3 processor would support CXMT's LPDDR6, making the foldable phone the first handset to use the combination.

LPDDR6 is a newer generation of low-power memory designed for mobile devices. It helps smartphones handle data more efficiently and supports the growing computing requirements of advanced processors and applications. The development also highlights Xiaomi's efforts to reduce its dependence on overseas chip suppliers. The company has traditionally relied on Qualcomm and MediaTek for application processors, but is increasingly using its own processors while expanding cooperation with Chinese chip suppliers.

A local semiconductor industry official said the Xiaomi-CXMT partnership could give CXMT an early opportunity to test its LPDDR6 technology in a flagship smartphone.

"Xiaomi is effectively serving as an early test bed for CXMT by putting its own processor together with LPDDR6 in a flagship device," the official said.

Technical Details and Competition

Reports indicate the LPDDR6 interface has a memory transfer rate of 10,667 Mbps, and with a 4× 24-bit bus width (96-bit total), that gives a peak theoretical memory bandwidth of around 128 GBytes/second. However, because 32 bits of the 288-bit interface are dedicated to metadata, the actual peak theoretical bandwidth is closer to 113.8 GBytes/second. Xiaomi says the XRING O3 SoC offers 48% more memory bandwidth than the XRING O1.

The official cautioned that CXMT's mass-production announcement does not necessarily mean that it has technologically overtaken Samsung or SK hynix. Indeed, both rivals are also developing LPDDR6 memory. SK hynix said in March that it had completed development of a 16-gigabit LPDDR6 product and planned to begin supplying customers in the second half of the year. Korean media reported that Xiaomi was likely to be among SK hynix's first customers when it begins shipping.

Outlook

The 18 Fold's expected shipments of around 200,000 to 300,000 units are small, meaning CXMT's actual production capacity and yields could be lower than the mass-production announcement suggests. The technology is also expected to scale to 14.4 Gbps in the future. JEDEC's DDR6 specification has not yet been finalized. These factors, combined with the current shipments acting as an early test, suggest this is the start of a long road for CXMT's LPDDR6 technology rollout.