Memory maker Rambus announces what it says is an industry first-- a fully-functional DDR5 DIMM prototype, one capable of "the speeds required for the upcoming DDR5 standard."

"We are proud to provide an early path to adoption with the first working buffer chip prototype running at the anticipated performance of next-generation DDR5," the company says. "This demonstrates our continued dedication to be first to market and remaining on the leading edge of industry standards."

Standards association JEDEC still has to publish the standard for DDR5, but the memory technology should offer double the bandwidth and the density of DDR4, with improved channel efficiency and greater power efficiency. As such, DDR5 should reach data rates of up to 6.4Gbit/s and deliver a maximum of 51.2GBytes/s, up from the 3.2Gbit/s and 25.6GBytes/s of DDR4.

G.SKill announces the DDR4-4600MHz CL19-- a DDR4 memory kit promising "extreme performance" built using hand-selected Samsung B-die IC components and aluminium heatspreaders in either black or white.

Designed for dual-channel operation on the Intel X299 HEDT platform, the kit offers total capacity of 16GB (8GB X2), and promises the kind of speed that "was only achievable under extreme overclocking with liquid nitrogen cooling."

Geil announces the EVO Spear memory series-- with kits aimed at Intel and AMD Ryzen machines, all designed for gamers and enthusiasts wanting a cost-effective upgrades.

The company says EVO Spear series RAM is optimised for Intel Core X, i7 and i5 processors, including the Z200 and X299 series chipsets. On the other hand the AMD Edition sticks are compatible with Ryzen 7 and 5 processors, and AM4 motherboards. The AMD Edition memory kits have an AMD Ryzen logo on the packaging and modules, while the Intel sticks are nondescript.

According to TrendForce, Micron suspended the operations of its Inotera Fab-2 fabrication plant in Taiwan following a malfunction of a nitrogen gas dispensing system, leading a disruption in DRAM production.

The Fab-2 site accounts 5.5% of global DRAM production, with an output of 60000 wafer starts per month. This means the disruption will lead to a spike in memory prices, at least according to DRAMeXchange, the TrendForce memory price tracking service. Fab-2 produces DRAM used in PCs, servers and mobile devices, and supply chain news site Evertiq claims it is even makes memory for the iPhone.

"Inotera is also mainly responsible for manufacturing Micron’s LPDDR4 products that go into Apple’s supply chain for iPhone," Evertiq says. "The temporary shutdown of Fab-2 could have an impact on shipments of the upcoming new iPhone devices as well."