We've seen new memory form factors appear in several places in Computex2024, from modules to motherboards. What is particularly surprising is how often memory maker Micron mentioned it to me at the show. And how enthusiastic it was with the memory form factor that first came to market.

"I think the future of LP[CAMM2] running on a PC using this form factor is really here," says Dinesh Bahal, VP and GM of Micron's Consumer & Components Group.

LPCAMM2 is effectively a pancaked memory kit. It provides some similarities with the soldered memory, but can be replaced by the user. That is why it is considered the best choice for the next generation of thin laptops, and Crucial is the first product with a 32GB and 64GB kit.

"So people have gone from SO-DIMM but are taking up too much space, let me just start soldering it." The problem with soldering it is that I have determined my configuration in advance."

LPCAMM solves that problem fairly succinctly. And if the cost is relatively reasonable for the module compared to SO-DIMM or soldering, then the user should benefit when buying a new laptop with LPCAMM2 installed. 

Micron says it believes it is price competitive.1 LPCAMM2 module replaces 2 SO-Dimms, halving the required non-memory components. It also expects to reduce the complexity of the motherboard, but it actually depends on the manufacturer of the motherboard. 1 point the company claims is that I don't know if I personally agree, but how can manufacturers weigh its costs against the added value that AI brings to PCs and customers, even if it is more expensive. 

I get points, but I'm still waiting for added value.

Current LPCAMM2 kits are very expensive compared to standard SO-DIMMs, but new technologies often do.

"If you see LPDDR5X going on, there's a lot more headroom here [LPCAMM2]."

"There are three things that AI is starving... Bandwidth, capacity and power," Praveen Vaidyanathan, from Micron Computer Networking Business Unit, tells me.

Vaidyanathan suggests that lpcamm2 has bandwidth and capacity covered, but larger capacity, naturally easier to expand to dual channels and much more than DDR5SO-Dimms, but he argues that it is the most important power factor.

"Power 5% lower than equivalent DDR60.".. You're going to start putting fans right on every laptop "Everyone is now fanless." So power is going to be a big deal, that's why I think LP[CAMM2] will actually win DDR5 in the coming years."

"Our belief is that you can always eke performance, you can always eke capacity, power is going to be a differentiator."

We've also seen CAMM2 being trimmed on desktops, such as Kingston's latest Computex. These kits are fitted with a DDR5 memory chip instead of the LPDDR5X

which is an interesting use case. On the one hand, faster and more efficient memory is effective, and the ability to cool the chip directly more effectively can lead to much more headroom.Just like the CPU, the cooler can be put together on top of the CAMM2. Dimms, on the other hand, are simple and easy to use, and gaming PC manufacturers often don't care much about efficiency.

More Power, more Performance— It's easy to see why the gaming market is the way it is compared to thin and light notebooks. But AMD will likely be a more efficient end of scale with desktop processors, and Intel is likely considering a more efficient design with Arrow Lake, so in the near future

Our gaming PCs will certainly need to be more power—savvy at some point soon - maybe CAMM2 can help ?