Micron releases an update on the development and production of GDDR5X and GDDR6 memory products-- the company plans to introduce improved GDDR5X chips soon, while GDDR6 is to hit mass production on early 2018.

The company first launched "G5X" memory chips at 10Gbps speeds, but now it supplies them in 10, 11 and 12Gdbps, with production focusing on increasing data rates and yields. Currently, the Nvidia Titan Xp GPU uses "Micron's next-gen G5X at 11.4Gbps, which is now in mass production."

Corsair adds to the Dominator Platinum memory series with a pair of 32GB DDR 4kits featuring quite the mouthful of a name-- the Dominator Platinum Special Edition Torque.

Essentially a fancy version of the previous Dominator Platinum RAM, the Torque model features a top bar heat-treated to look similar to the exhaust manifolds of high-performance engines. It also carries integrated white LEDs for a bit of extra flair. The black aluminium heatsinks get a brushed metal finish, while the cooling fins are in a fetching shade of orange.

The SK Hynix product portfolio gets GDDR6 DRAM-- described by the company as "the world's fastest 2Znm 8Gb (Gigabit) GDDR6 (Graphics DDR6) DRAM" designed for high-end graphics card use.

The 20nm 8Gb chips operate at 16Gbps per pin, an industry record. SK Hynix provides a performance example of a graphics card with a 384-bit memory bus equipped with GDDR6, offering a bandwidth of up to 768GBbps. In comparis, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti equipped with GDDR5X has a bandwidth of under 500GBps.

G.Skill announces what it claims is its fastest memory kit yet-- the Trident Z, running at DDR4 4333MHz at 16GB (8GBx2) capacity, with CL19-19-39 timing at 1.4V.

The company says the Trident Z is the first DDR4-4333MHz kit on the market in the 8GBx2 configuration. Validation took place on an Asus ROG Maximus IX Apex motherboard with an Intel Core i5-7600K processor, with results making the modules ideal for the PC enthusiast market.

The JEDEC solid state technology association announces development on the DDR5 and DVDIMM-P memory standards is "moving forward rapidly," and should be done by 2018.

DDR5 RAM promises a number of advantages over previous DRAM technologies, including double the density and bandwidth of DDR4, as well as improved channel efficiency and greater power efficiency. It also provides server and client platforms with a more user-friendly interface for performance and power management tweaking.

Intel announces a first Optane product for the consumer market-- cache drive modules designed to reduce loading times through extremely low latency and SSD speeds.

The modules offer limited capacity of only 16 or 32GB, but with latency of under 10 microseconds and peak sequential read speeds reaching 900MB/s Intel claims a performance boost of 28%. The company says storage loads up to 14x faster, while common apps such as Chrome or Outlook load up to 5-6x faster and games can load levels up to 65% faster.

Customers interested in the Optane modules have to keep in mind the requirement of a PC running on a 7th-generation Core (such as Kaby Lake) chipset. Interestingly, AanandTech notes the performance boost is not really felt if one has an SSD as primary storage, meaning the modules are best used in PCs stuck with traditional HDDs.

Corsair announces the Vengeance RGB-- a DDR4 memory line featuring native RGB lighting customers can control through Corsair Link software on compatible motherboards.

The Vengeance RGB modules do not need additional wiring in order to get the lighting to work, and are capable of 1 colour per dim at any moment. They can also shift between 4 dynamic modes, with either 1 static colour per module, breathing, colour shifting per module or a rainbow between different modules.

Taiwan-based memory maker GeIL launches the EVO X-- a DDR4 RAM series described as "the world's first fully RGB illuminated DDR4 memory module."

The modules are compatible with X99 and Z170 motherboards, support speeds ranging from 3000 to beyond 4000MHz and feature a Hybrid-Independent-Light-Module (HILM) design separating the lighting circuitry from the memory module. According to the company this means the illumination does not interfere with the module, providing maximum performance.

The EVO X supports motherboard RGB interfaces and applications from various vendors, including Asus Asura, Gigabyte Ambient LED and MSI Mystic Light, via motherboard 4-pin RGB header connection. The lighting module synchronises with motherboard, graphics card and RGB UI compatible components for a "seamless illumination experience."