The big picture: With the move, Micron joins Samsung and SK Hynix in production of GDDR6. No word yet on when we'll see the first products shipping with the new tech, however.

Micron Technology on Monday announced it has started producing 8Gb GDDR6 memory in volume, its fastest and most powerful graphics memory to date.

Designed in Micron's Munich Development Center, the new GDDR6 is said to be optimized for a variety of applications that require high-performance memory. Micron specifically cited artificial intelligence, networking, graphics processing and automotive as fields that'll benefit from GDDR6:

  • Artificial Intelligence --- Artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning are memory intensive applications that require more bandwidth from memory solutions. GDDR6 delivers the higher bandwidth required to accelerate AI in applications like computer vision, autonomous driving and the many other applications that require this higher bandwidth.
  • Networking --- Advanced networking technologies require access to high speed/high bandwidth memory. GDDR6-powered smart Network Interface Cards (NIC) enable significant improvements in network bandwidth. Additionally, high bandwidth RAID controllers featuring GDDR6 memory deliver dramatic enhancements to data access and protection.
  • Graphics --- Enabling significant performance improvements for today's top GPUs, GDDR6 delivers enhanced graphic memory speeds to enable higher application bandwidth. Micron GDDR6 will be a core enabling technology of advanced GPU applications, including acceleration, 4K video and improved rendering, VR/AR and crypto mining applications.
  • Automotive --- As auto manufacturers push for autonomous vehicles, high performance memory is required to process the vast amounts of real-time data required to make this technology a reality. Micron GDDR6 delivers 448 GB/s auto qualified memory solutions, that deliver more than double the bandwidth of LPDDR5 automotive memory solutions.

Micron says it has also worked with core ecosystem partners to boost GDDR6 interoperability and documentation, thus reducing the time it takes for designs to reach the market.

Andreas Schlapka, director of the compute networking business unit at Micron, said the company recently achieved throughput up to 20 GB/s on its GDDR6 solution.

Micron's GDDR6 memory is on display at ISC 2018 in Frankfurt, Germany, through June 28.