Company: Samsung Semiconductor, Inc., San Jose, CA
Company Description: Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. As the leader in memory solutions for home, mobile and office applications, Samsung Semiconductor is the largest producer of DRAM, Flash, SRAM and high-end graphics memory. In addition, it is one of the largest producers of system logic, sensors and controllers, and the largest producer of LCD displays.
Nomination Category: Products & Product Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: New Product or Service of the Year - Computer Hardware

Nomination Title: Samsung GDDR5 Graphics Memory

Tell the story about this nominated product or service (up to 500 words). Describe its function, features, benefits, and sales to date. You may include hyperlinks to product photos and data sheets. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

Samsung Semiconductor Inc is nominating its high performance GDDR5 graphics
memory in the New Products category.  Our GDDR5 was first mass produced in
February 2009.   GDDR5 is now the fastest and highest performing memory in the
world, and allows manufacturers to improve the gaming experience with it across
all platforms (PC, console, portable). Graphics memory is installed in high-end
desktop PCs, notebooks, workstations and game consoles to move huge volumes of
video or animated images simultaneously.

Designed to support a maximum data transfer speed of 7.0Gbps (gigabits per
second), Samsung’s GDDR5 will render more life-like (or 3D) imaging with a
maximum bandwidth of 28GB/s (gigabytes per second), which is more than twice
that of the previous fastest graphics memory bandwidth of 12.8GB/s for GDDR4.
The graphics memory chip’s ultra-fast processing speed is equivalent to
transferring nineteen 1.5GB DVD resolution movies in one second. The high image
processing speed of our GDDR5 also supports the latest data formats (Blu-ray
and full HD).

Samsung’s GDDR5 memory pushes image enhancement to a limit never before
realized, enabling the smoothest, clearest animation that gamers and CAD/CAM
professionals have yet to experience.  It is more than four times faster than
the graphics memory used in state-of-the-art game consoles today.
Unlike the previous fastest graphics memory, which processed data and images
using the strobe-and-clock technique, the processing speed of the GDDR5 is much
faster because GDDR5 operates with a free-running clock that does not require
the data read/write function to be synchronized to the operations of the clock.
Because it makes use of 50-nanometer class process technology for
manufacturing, we expect production efficiency to rise 100 percent over 60nm
class technology. In addition, our GDDR5 operates at 1.5 volts (V), which
represents a 20 percent reduction in power consumption compared to the 1.8V at
which GDDR4 devices operate.

Available in a 32Megabit (Mb) x32 configuration and also configurable as a 64Mb
x16 device, we expect GDDR5 (of which Samsung is far and away the largest
producer) to account for over 20 percent of the total graphic memory market in
2009.  GDDR5 memory chips are expected to easily become the top performing
segment of the graphics market by capturing more than 50 percent of high-end PC
graphics by sometime in 2010.

Samsung’s GDDR5 is now being sold to major original equipment manufacturers
worldwide. 
Additional information online:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/products/dram/Products_GraphicsMemory.html   

Samsung GDDR5 photo:
http://xtreview.com/images/samsung%20GDDR5%2050nm%2001.jpg   

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, product reviews, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/samsung-begins-mass-production-high-performance/story.aspx?guid={5C1B1C42-B178-458B-98E8-79561F8E1D80}&dist=msr_1  

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Samsung-Announces-Mass-Production-of-50nm-GDDR5-Memory-104328.shtml  

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that developed this nominated product or service:

Pablo Temprano:  As Director of DRAM and Graphics Memory in North America,
Temprano is responsible for all product marketing, business development and
market sensing involving main PC memory (DRAM or dynamic random access memory)
and graphics memory. He has been with Samsung for the past 10 years, during
which time he also held positions in several areas of Liquid Crystal Display
product marketing.  Previously, he spent six years in sales and marketing
management roles with various LCD manufacturers. Temprano holds a Bachelor’s
Degree in Electrical Engineering. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with
his wife and three children.