Completely new motherboards with an entirely new layout would be needed for the transfer.
In the year 2022, Dell shocked the whole technology community by announcing that it had developed a brand new standard for laptop memory that was referred to as CAMM. The name “Compression Attached Memory Module” was even given to it as a sensual moniker. Since that time, the new design has been awarded certification to replace SO-DIMM as the official standard for laptop memory. However, SK Hynix has just announced that it will eventually be made available for desktop personal computers as well. Although there is no indication as to when this would take place, if it does take place, it would undoubtedly cause a disruption in the market for desktop memory.
A apparently benign comment made by an SK Hynix representative at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week yielded the news that CAMM will soon be available for desktop personal computers. It was reported by Wccftech that a representative from SK Hynix made a comment to a journalist who visited the booth during the trade exhibition. The representative stated that the company has already started making work on the shift. Following the dissemination of this information, it was subsequently found out that it had also been highlighted in a press release issued by JEDEC, which is the organization that is responsible for ratifying memory recommendations. It is also evident that nobody reads press releases, as it notes that “DDR5 CAMM2s are intended for performance notebooks and mainstream desktops, while LPDDR5/5X CAMM2s target a wider range of notebooks and certain server market segments.” This is another evidence that nobody reads press releases.
Simply put, the utilization of CAMM modules on a desktop motherboard would necessitate a complete redesign of the arrangement of components, which is why this is a remarkable development. CAMM modules are horizontal and screwed into a socket, as opposed to being clicked into vertical slots like the DRAM sticks that we use currently. As a result, you can already imagine how motherboard designs would evolve in order to accommodate CAMM. These modules are also small and flat, which may restrict the number of modules that can be mounted on an ATX board. This is because installing four of these modules would require an excessive amount of space. In addition to this, it would signal the time when our prior luminous RAM sticks would no longer exist.
CAMM2, the second iteration of the specification, is the standard that is currently being designed for desktop computers. This standard, which was issued by JEDEC only a month ago, will make it possible for memory manufacturers to start developing modules that can replace SO-DIMM found in laptops. Although JEDEC claims that CAMM2 is for DDR5, we do not anticipate the appearance of CAMM until DDR6 is ready, which is expected to be around the year 2025. This is due to the fact that CAMM is presently in the process of becoming widespread, just like the DDR4 sticks that they are replacing.
The fact that the previous SO-DIMM standard reached its maximum capacity at DDR6-6400 was one of the problems with it, at least in terms of DDR5 memory. While CAMM will make it possible to achieve significantly greater speeds and densities for mobile memory, the advantages that it will bring to desktop computers in comparison to regular memory sticks are still unknown. Because we are currently witnessing DDR5 modules reaching 8,000MHz and the way is clear to DDR6 and DDR7, we will need to obtain a great deal more information on CAMM for desktop before we can understand why it would be superior to vertical DRAM sticks. It is possible that low-power CAMM modules could result in energy savings; however, this is typically a worry that is more prevalent for mobile devices than it is for desktop computers.