Micron is making waves when it comes to memory, pushing RAM manufacturing to new heights with a new Latin-themed process. The company is poised to offer a 32Gb DDR5 DRAM IC this year, slowly paving the way to 1TB memory modules.

Micron currently plans to mass produce 32Gb DDR5 DRAM chips in the first half of 2024 (via Tom's Hardware). It may not be long before such memory is used in data centers around the world, and 1TB RAM modules may not be far behind.

Unfortunately, the company does not disclose data transfer rates, but considering that Micron's previous memory modules had transfer rates of 5200 MT/s and 5600 MT/s, the upcoming 3rd generation chip design should offer excellent performance.

This is all due to the new manufacturing technology Micron is employing. While the previous chips were manufactured using 1-alpha (one-alpha) technology, the upcoming 32Gb chips will use the company's latest 1beta (one-beta) manufacturing technology, which does not use the extreme ultraviolet lithography used in the previous technology. [The company is currently too busy planning 16Gb and 24Gb GDDR7 chips with 32GT/sec transfer rates. The roadmap lists 128GB, 192GB, and 256GB DDR5 modules, all of which will use a bunch of new 32Gb chips, which could theoretically lead to 512GB and even 1TB modules.

As Tom's report points out, to fully configure a 1TB module, eight of these 32Gb ICs would need to be stacked on top of each other, with 32 of them packed into a stick. But it is possible. Theoretically. It's a niche, but it's possible.

The main concern is that while there is certainly potential for larger modules in the future, when they first hit, they will likely be on a build-to-order basis for specific (and well-paying) partners.

The main takeaway here is that while we dream of running 1TB of RAM in our gaming PCs, companies like Micron are moving up the memory ranks to get us closer to that dream.