Isn’t RAM soldered on the SoC just plain better than farther away slotted technology? (Except for upgrading).
I would have expected the ram slots to be on the other side of the motherboard, on the opposite side of the CPU pins to shorten the traces even more. Why do they have to be side by side?
CAMM2 is reportedly poised to become the preferred form factor for DDR6 memory
It looks like a daughter board to me. From another site it appears these can hold anywhere from 8GB to 128GB, 256GB planned. Some additional discussion on Reddit [1]
It makes sense that each "stick" needs to be higher density since you can fit far fewer of them flat on a motherboard (especially true for servers, I'm curious to see what that'll look like).
HOWEVER, it all comes down to adoption, adoption, adoption. Until several board makers are making boards with CAMM2 support and manufacturers are making CAMM2 format memory - it'll struggle to gain any adoption. If we're lucky it'll become popular in the enthusiast space with some very high-end boards, and gradually work its way down to mainstream.
Or maybe backwards, through things like laptops - where maybe the packaging benefits are higher.
(Interestingly those links are getting a little long (because there's so many socamm2 modules). I wonder if socamm3 will be not dual channel but quad channel, to shorten the link lengths.)
The future is already here, we plebes just don't have access to the post-PC market that has formed anymore.
RAM sticks aren't dying anytime soon, but DDR6/LPDDR modules may come in CAMM(2) formats for faster data transfer rates. It's still chips on a module, just with shorter traces to the CPU due to the orientation.
Also, given RAM shortage and the fact that DDR6 isn't anywhere near consumer availability, this will take a while, probably at least until mid-2028 for any kind of wide adoption. And it's likely that DDR6 will also still be available as sticks, at least in the budget/lower speed sector?
Can it be upgraded ? I heard many newer laptops went back to soldered ram because people want thin.
I doubt I will ever get a system with this type of ram, but if it can be easily upgraded then that is an improvement. I usually buy used or in reality I take Laptops from people I know who went and bought the latest and greatest hardware.
I am typing this on a T430 with NetBSD I got from a relative a year ago. I upgraded the ram to 16G back then and today I replaced the keyboard. The keyboard's power button stopped working, seems a small piece broke off over the years and it got to the point it needed replacement.
FWIW, I want a laptop where if you throw it at someone they will know it/s.
Isn’t RAM soldered on the SoC just plain better than farther away slotted technology? (Except for upgrading).
I would have expected the ram slots to be on the other side of the motherboard, on the opposite side of the CPU pins to shorten the traces even more. Why do they have to be side by side?
CAMM2 is reportedly poised to become the preferred form factor for DDR6 memory
It looks like a daughter board to me. From another site it appears these can hold anywhere from 8GB to 128GB, 256GB planned. Some additional discussion on Reddit [1]
[1] - https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/1dipisg/what_is_c...
It makes sense that each "stick" needs to be higher density since you can fit far fewer of them flat on a motherboard (especially true for servers, I'm curious to see what that'll look like).
There is also SOCAMM (Small Outline CAMM) and it looks like this: https://www.servethehome.com/micron-socamm-memory-powers-nex...
Seems to be much better in terms of footprint and modularity. Guess we won't see these on the desktop though.
CAMM2 has definite advantages over normal sticks.
HOWEVER, it all comes down to adoption, adoption, adoption. Until several board makers are making boards with CAMM2 support and manufacturers are making CAMM2 format memory - it'll struggle to gain any adoption. If we're lucky it'll become popular in the enthusiast space with some very high-end boards, and gradually work its way down to mainstream.
Or maybe backwards, through things like laptops - where maybe the packaging benefits are higher.
Adoption is probably at 33%+ (by ram volume).
Nvidia has been using socamm now socamm2 for a while. In terms of real estate, the motherboard is dominated by socamm2: look at the photo on link #2. https://www.techpowerup.com/341002/nvidia-moves-to-socamm2-p... https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/vera-cpu/
(Interestingly those links are getting a little long (because there's so many socamm2 modules). I wonder if socamm3 will be not dual channel but quad channel, to shorten the link lengths.)
The future is already here, we plebes just don't have access to the post-PC market that has formed anymore.
The big change here would be that you might only be able to have one of these modules? I don't think that will be popular…
Now if only ECC became a baseline feature.
This is a clickbait headline.
In short:
RAM sticks aren't dying anytime soon, but DDR6/LPDDR modules may come in CAMM(2) formats for faster data transfer rates. It's still chips on a module, just with shorter traces to the CPU due to the orientation.
Also, given RAM shortage and the fact that DDR6 isn't anywhere near consumer availability, this will take a while, probably at least until mid-2028 for any kind of wide adoption. And it's likely that DDR6 will also still be available as sticks, at least in the budget/lower speed sector?
Can it be upgraded ? I heard many newer laptops went back to soldered ram because people want thin.
I doubt I will ever get a system with this type of ram, but if it can be easily upgraded then that is an improvement. I usually buy used or in reality I take Laptops from people I know who went and bought the latest and greatest hardware.
I am typing this on a T430 with NetBSD I got from a relative a year ago. I upgraded the ram to 16G back then and today I replaced the keyboard. The keyboard's power button stopped working, seems a small piece broke off over the years and it got to the point it needed replacement.
FWIW, I want a laptop where if you throw it at someone they will know it/s.
Motherboards will likely have less CAMM slots than current RAM slots, but the modules should come in higher capacity.
So you should be able to upgrade easily, unless you already have the max capacity module.
Soon gone are the days of incremental builds. The water cooling enthusiasts will like it.