CAMM2, quick for Compression Connected Memory Module (and additionally 2), is with out doubt one of many few essentially interesting bits of hardware innovation to come out within the final few years. It’s poised to give us faster and extra efficient reminiscence for laptops (and even per chance desktops?) while additionally keeping the upgradeability that appears to be disappearing. For a deeper dive into the technical aspect of CAMM2, try Gordon’s video breakdown.
The conventional CAMM fabricate comes from engineers at Dell, but they’ve made their work on the market to JEDEC, the affiliation that helps to standardize flash storage and reminiscence formats at some level of diverse companies. Since then the first laptops with CAMM-essentially based entirely mostly reminiscence have transform on the market, and now we have gotten a valid contender within the adjusted CAMM2 typical.
It’s miles on the market in two flavors, the plump-energy DDR5 CAMM2 (in a quantity of sizes), and the low-energy alternate LPDDR5 CAMM2 (in most cases shortened to appropriate LP CAMM2), which is made for bigger effectivity in laptops. The rectangular CAMM2 modules are designed for desktops and servers, the set up they’ll nonetheless be faster and extra efficient than normal reminiscence, while the LPDDR5 CAMM2 for laptops is smaller with an angled extension — it form of appears to be like love a hat.
Lenovo’s ThinkPad P1 gen 7 series is the first pc pc on the market at retail to make use of the LPDDR5 CAMM2 typical, with MSI showing off a prototype motherboard with a CAMM2 reminiscence connector at Computex. All three vital reminiscence suppliers, Micron, Samsung, and Hynix, are on board, so we’re properly space up to stare it broaden to future hardware.
The advantages of CAMM2 are most dramatic for laptops. The reminiscence installs onto a compression plate with screws, so for the quit user it’s no extra advanced to set up or change than an M2 force. However the fabricate formulation you set a colossal quantity of vertical house within the hardware, ultimate for building smaller and thinner laptops. The limitation of oldschool SO-DIMM reminiscence in this regard is the motive that extra and extra laptops are soldering their reminiscence in set up permanently.
CAMM2 isn’t a magic bullet solution — it’s nonetheless extra advanced, dearer, and extra voluminous than soldered reminiscence, and it’s nowhere near as rapidly or efficient because the reminiscence being installed steady on the processor die as seen in Intel’s upcoming Lunar Lake CPUs and Apple’s unusual M-series MacBooks. However it’s an improvement in every technical skill over SO-DIMM, so there’s hope that that is an acceptable compromise to provide laptops extra repairable and fewer inclined to e-demolish. The advantages of the bigger CAMM2 modules for desktops, in conjunction with “colossal iron” data center hardware, are additionally apparent.
Check the video for Gordon Ung’s expert stroll-via of JEDEC’s presentation on the expertise, and be particular to subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube to decide abreast of all the finest hardware that also can produce its formulation into your subsequent machine.
Additional reading: Simplest of Computex 2024: Seemingly the most interesting and innovative PC hardware
