- 512 GB DRAM sounds huge but don’t keep the weather for consumers’ availability
- NEOS 3D X-DRAM stacks layer sky high but price and practically remain unclear
- AI and Enterprise Systems get the speed, ordinary users are likely to not
NEO SEMICONDUCTORS Push in 3D X-DRAM memory marks an ambitious attempt to reconsider drama design to AI and high-performance computer era.
While the promises – stacked layers, improved bandwidth and reduced power consumption – are impressive, the practical and consumer accessibility of these technologies remains open to control.
With the company that projects that its most advanced modules could reach densities of up to 512 GB, is it hard not to ask: Who is this memory really for?
Complex architectures with limited consumer impact
At the core of NeO’s approach is a vertical stacked architecture that mimics the structure of 3D nand.
In NEO’s own words, the array is “segmented in several sectors by vertical columns” with “word line layers connected through stair structures.”
The company compares its 3D X-dram density with the current 0.A-Node Planar Drams 48 GB and claims to reach 512 GB, but the implication that such capabilities will seep into mainstream consumer products, at best, seems at best at best.
Proof-of-concept chips are still in the early stages. NEO is currently developing a test version of the simpler 1T0c architecture with the more complex and more promising 1T1c version scheduled for 2026.
The 1T1C variant uses IGZO transistors paired with a cylindrical high-k dielectric capacitor. It promises improved retention time, supposedly over 450 seconds, and supports stacking up to 128 layers.
With further improvements, including the addition of 5nm-thick spacers to reduce parasite capacitance, neo-requirements stacking can exceed 512 layers.
The 3T0C design, which incorporates double IGZO layers, is aimed at computer computing and AI applications.
Still, NEO is raising the statement of removing the need for TSV and enabling up to 32k-bit bus widths.
Such a bandwidth sounds transformative, especially compared to the projected 2K-bit bus width on HBM4, but scaling of this level of performance in real world systems is a non-trivial task.
From a broader perspective, the drama market has not changed significantly with regard to cost per year. GB in the last decade. Despite some fluctuations, the downward tendency slowed down significantly after 2012.
For example, one can expect the MacBook Pro to send with far more RAM by default today than it did a decade ago, but it has not happened.
Even with some price drop – DDR3 vs. DDR5 comparisons show modest improvements – progress has not been revolutionary.
Pricing of raw materials can fluctuate, but the total curve is flattened. Forecasts suggest that we may be near a low point before another recovery.
So while the 3D X-dram can actually deliver larger, faster memory by 2026, these 512 GB modules are unlikely to be available to consumers anytime soon.
More likely, such capacity and speed will be reserved for AI servers and business systems rather than everyday desktops or laptops.
