According to sources close to the company’s supply chain, Apple would be collaborating with Samsung to develop a new way of packaging RAM in iPhones, which would increase bandwidth and speed up AI tasks, a key feature for the future of your smartphones.
Change in the RAM architecture of the iPhone
Currently, most smartphones use a design in which RAM is integrated in the same package than the processor, which facilitates communication between both components. However, Apple seems to be looking for a different solution, willing to break with the norm. The company’s new approach would involve separating the processor’s RAM into different chips, which would allow more memory to be included and further speed up access to the data necessary to execute artificial intelligence tasks.
Apple has reportedly asked Samsung to investigate how to improve the packaging of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) memory used in iPhones. The main challenge is that although the memory is currently in the same package as the processor, the data access speed can only improve to a certain limit due to the physical restrictions of the chips.
Apple is looking to improve the iPhone’s RAM, but there are a number of existing limitations that could make this task difficult. By separating both components, it aims to improve speed and capacity.
Apple changes its short-term goal
Samsung has begun researching how to create a larger, faster DRAM package, ensuring that power efficiency is maintained so as not to impact the iPhone’s battery. However, separating these components presents challenges, especially due to limited space on the device. Apple may need to reduce the size of its SoC (System on a Chip) processor and possibly also that of the battery, which would impact the final design of the iPhone and could mean a loss of autonomy.
Although the use of high-bandwidth memory, commonly used in servers, was considered, Apple has chosen not to pursue this option due to difficulties in making it compact and energy efficient enough for a phone. Instead, the company will collaborate with Samsung on a new approach that could materialize on iPhone 18scheduled for 2026.
The improvement in RAM will not only be useful for everyday tasks, but will boost the performance of artificial intelligence in Apple devices, which is increasingly important in daily life, from image processing to machine learning, and this new architecture will allow iPhones to handle these tasks more efficiently and faster. This could mean advances in computational photography, improvements in operating system customization, and new capabilities in AI applications.
