It is increasingly common to see laptops with RAM soldered directly to the motherboard. This practice began to be implemented by Apple and has spread throughout the industry. Microsoft does this with its systems, in addition to other manufacturers such as HP, Dell and others.
Soldered RAM Explained
The industry is moving towards powerful, lightweight and compact systems. We have seen how the thickness of laptops has been received in recent years. Some models are about 1 centimeter thick, something difficult to achieve without using certain tricks. It is not enough to just use M.2 SSD drives to reduce the size, other measures are required.
Haval OthmanSenior Director of Experience Engineering at H.P., has explained the reasons why the RAM memory is soldered to the motherboard. He highlights that, among the reasons, there is energy saving, extending the useful life of the motherboard, saving space on the motherboard and also allowing thinner and lighter laptops to be designed.
Soldering the RAM means eliminating the installation sockets and, therefore, allows the thickness of the laptops to be reduced. It also allows production times to be significantly reduced, which reduces assembly, handling and transportation costs, as well as improving profit margins for companies.
This is something that is assumed in the processor and the graphics card, but it is not so liked in the RAM memory. In the end, expanding this component is one of the great strengths that allows us to extend the life of portable systems. It also makes it much more complicated to repair a laptop, requiring specialized centers.
Many users highlight that this measure causes the system to become obsolete sooner, forcing them to buy new systems. Therefore, electronic waste is worsening, which is one of the serious problems worldwide.
Samsung has the intermediate solution
The SO-DIMM format is standardized for laptop computers. Approximately, it is 50% more compact than the DIMM format, making it especially interesting for these systems. But this format has not been updated for more than two decades and does not adapt to modern times.
Faced with this problem, Samsung has been working on a new format for RAM memory modules for some time. The company has developed the CAMM2 format, which is much more compact than SO-DIMM.
The strengths of the CAMM2 format is that it allows us to create systems that are just as compact as if we soldered the RAM to the motherboard. Additionally, it allows you to change the modules and thus expand the system’s memory capacity. At the same time, it allows simplicity in repairing damage to this component.
At the moment, there are no laptops that use this new type of memory. Nor is it a format, at the moment, standardized by JEDEC, the consortium that is in charge of the RAM standard, among others. Yes, they are interested and are studying this format, but at the moment, there is nothing firm.