Samsung Electronics has started mass production of the first 16-gigabit (Gb) Graphics Double Data Rate 6 (GDDR6) memory for use in graphics processing for gaming devices and graphics cards.

Built on Samsung's advanced 10-nanomter (nm) class process technology (somewhere between 10 and 19 nanometers), the new GDDR6 memory comes in a 16Gb density, which doubles that of the company's 20-nanometer 8Gb GDDR5 memory. The new solution performs at an 18-gigabits-per-second (Gbps) pin speed with data transfers of 72 gigabytes per second (GBps), which represents a more than two-fold increase over 8Gb GDDR5 with its 8Gbps pin speed.

Using a low-power circuit design, the new GDDR6 operates at 1.35V to lower energy consumption approximately 35 percent over the widely used GDDR5 at 1.55V. The 10nm-class 16Gb GDDR6 also brings about a 30 percent manufacturing productivity gain compared to the 20nm 8Gb GDDR5.

Samsung's immediate production of GDDR6 will play a critical role in early launches of next-generation graphics cards and systems.

Samsung also recently introduced 2.4Gbps 8GB HBM2.