Samsung Electronics' LPDDR6 Achieves Industry-First Validation on Qualcomm 'Snapdragon 8' Platform

Up to 114GB/s Memory Bandwidth
Power Efficiency Improved by Up to 21% Compared to Previous Generation

Samsung Electronics has taken the lead in the next-generation mobile memory market by having its next-generation low-power DRAM, LPDDR6, validated on Qualcomm's new Snapdragon platform. With the spread of on-device artificial intelligence (AI) driving demand for high-performance, low-power memory, Samsung aims to spearhead the industry’s transition to next-generation products through its competitive edge in mobile DRAM technology.

On September 23, Samsung Electronics announced that it has successfully validated its 16GB LPDDR6 on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 (6th generation) platform at an industry-first maximum I/O speed of 10.7Gbps. This validation confirms that Samsung Electronics’ LPDDR6 meets the performance requirements of next-generation mobile platforms.

LPDDR6 offers up to 114GB/s of memory bandwidth, supported by enhanced per-pin I/O speed and an expanded I/O architecture. This reduces data bottlenecks between memory and processor, enabling smoother handling of AI-related data processing tasks.

Samsung Electronics LPDDR6. Samsung Electronics.

Power efficiency has also been improved. The device is designed to dynamically adjust power consumption through Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) and Dynamic Efficiency Mode (DEM), depending on computational workloads. As a result, LPDDR6 achieves up to 21% higher power efficiency compared to the previous generation, LPDDR5X. Samsung also adopted its PRAC technology, which detects repeated activations of specific memory rows to manage data interference, thereby enhancing system stability.

Samsung Electronics has led LPDDR generational transitions in the mobile DRAM market, leveraging its accumulated technological capabilities and collaboration with client companies. Starting with the industry’s first development of LPDDR5 in 2018, Samsung went on to create LPDDR5X in 2021 and unveiled the then-fastest 10.7Gbps LPDDR5X in 2024.

Samsung has also continued its validation partnerships with major mobile application processor (AP) companies. In 2022, the company completed LPDDR5X operation validation on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform, and in 2024, it became the industry’s first to validate 10.7Gbps LPDDR5X on MediaTek’s flagship AP, the Dimensity 9400. For LPDDR6, Samsung participated in the standardization process with JEDEC, the international semiconductor standards body, and has conducted early validations with major system-on-chip (SoC) companies.

This latest LPDDR6 validation was also achieved through technical collaboration between Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm. Samsung announced plans to supply high-performance, low-power memory solutions in a timely fashion, aligning with the commercialization schedules of its customers.

Jangseok Choi, Vice President and Head of Product Planning Team, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics, stated, “We are deeply honored to have successfully completed sample supply and quality validation of LPDDR6 on Qualcomm’s next-generation platform, following Samsung’s industry-first development of LPDDR6. This further demonstrates our technological leadership and product maturity in LPDDR6, and we will continue to provide high-performance, low-power memory solutions in line with our customers’ and the market’s commercialization timelines, leading the next-generation AI device market.”

The proliferation of on-device AI is cited as a driving force behind LPDDR market growth. As multimodal AI, which processes text, images, and audio simultaneously, and AI agents capable of interpreting user context and executing sequential tasks become more widespread, installed memory per device is on the rise.

According to market research firm Counterpoint, the proportion of generative AI smartphones within total smartphone shipments is predicted to rise from 36% in 2025, to 45% in 2026, and to 52% in 2027. According to Omdia, global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2026 rose 0.5% year-on-year, while total DRAM capacity installed in smartphones increased by 6.1%. The average DRAM capacity per device also grew by 5.5%, from 7.8GB to 8.3GB.

Samsung Electronics continues to maintain its number one market share in mobile DRAM. According to Omdia, its revenue share in the first quarter of 2026 was 43%, following 43% in the third quarter of 2025 and 42% in the fourth quarter, consistently remaining in the 40% range.

The adoption of LPDDR6 is also set to accelerate. Omdia forecasts that the share of LPDDR6 in total LPDDR shipments will rise from 3% in 2027, to 9% in 2028, and to 39% by 2030.

The applications of LPDDR have also expanded beyond mobile, now including AI PCs, edge computing, and automotive sectors. Samsung Electronics is expanding the application domain to AI data centers as well, via LPDDR-based server modules such as SOCAMM2 and the LPDDR-PIM, which enables in-memory computing.

Based on the development of LPDDR6 and validation with major customers, Samsung Electronics plans to meet the memory demand of next-generation mobile platforms while continuing to broaden the application scope of low-power memory technology.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.