GoKawiilSamsung details LPDDR5X-PIM chip with in-bank MAC units at Hot Chips 2026
Samsung presented its Processing-in-Memory approach for LPDDR5X-9600 chips, embedding a MAC computation block into each of the 16 DRAM banks while keeping compatibility with standard memory controllers. By computing directly within each bank, the design taps into 614 GB/s of internal bandwidth versus the 76.8 GB/s ceiling of conventional two-bank DRAM access. Each PIM block includes an instruction register file, a source register file for activation vectors, and a scale register, with model weights fetched directly from the attached DRAM bank.
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Moving computation into memory sidesteps the long-standing bottleneck between DRAM and processors, letting AI workloads exploit far more bandwidth than external memory buses allow. This matters as memory bandwidth increasingly limits AI inference performance, and Samsung's approach shows a path to accelerate low-precision matrix math without redesigning the entire memory interface.
- Samsung's LPDDR5X-PIM adds MAC units to every DRAM bank while retaining standard controller compatibility.
- Internal bank-level bandwidth reaches 614 GB/s, roughly 8x the 76.8 GB/s available through normal external DRAM access.
- The design targets low-precision AI inference by loading model weights directly from DRAM and activation data from onboard registers.
Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM Kit — While Samsung experiments with putting compute right inside DRAM banks, the rest of us can still get a real-world speed boost from a fast DDR5 kit. Corsair's Vengeance DDR5 modules are a straightforward drop-in upgrade for modern desktop platforms, with XMP/EXPO profiles for easy setup. A great way to feed memory-hungry workloads while in-memory compute matures.
See Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM Kit on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: chipsandcheese.com — Chester Lam, 2026-08-29
Published there as: “Samsung's Processing-in-Memory (PIM)”
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