The memory market could see a veteran player returning, as Intel teases interest in developing new architectures. While details of the company’s ambitions are in short supply for the moment, CEO Lip-Bu Tan has already highlighted some areas where he sees ripe potential for innovation.
Tom’s Hardware reports that Tan has shifted his perception of memory manufacturing as a commodity business to something altogether different. This isn’t too surprising if, like the CEO, you’ve paid attention to rising DRAM module prices in the wake of continued high demand from AI firms this past year. This is a booming market, but one that requires specific talent and tech to enter.
Intel certainly has the former, with the company recently hiring Seok-Hee Lee of SK Hynix fame. This is to say nothing of the firm’s history in memory manufacturing, stemming all the way back to the late 1960s to more-recent efforts such as Optane. Tan elaborates that Intel is putting these assets to work on “one of my pet projects, some of the new memory architecture,” but isn’t ready to discuss finer details.
However, Tan did provide a glimpse into his thoughts on potential avenues for Intel to explore. “I think CPU and memory, I think there are a lot of ways we can really do stacking together, and also try to find some new architecture for memory. I think in some way the memory, a lot of innovation are not there. So, there is some really good area.”
This sounds like a natural evolution of products such as Intel’s Lunar Lake platform, which features memory in the same package as the CPU. If Intel could effectively stack RAM on top of a CPU die, such a module could take up minimal space, and laptop manufacturers wouldn’t need to worry about sourcing memory from elsewhere.
However, we’re unlikely to see any results from Tan’s musings any time soon, as the company lacks the infrastructure to manufacture its own memory right now, and existing firms are already sold out when it comes to near-future capacity.
For more on everything processors, check out our picks of the best CPUs you can pop into a motherboard today.
