ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) said it has successfully produced China's first advanced dual data rate DRAM (LPDDR5) memory chip, similar to the generation of memory chips launched by Samsung Electronics in 2018.

The breakthrough comes as the US tightens high-tech exports to hamper Beijing's development in the semiconductor sector.

China has so far been blocked from accessing key high-end lithography systems from ASML, as well as some suppliers from Japan.

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CXMT's DRAM is rated to be as powerful as the Samsung product launched in 2018.

According to Hefei-based CXMT, one of their products, a 12 gigabyte (GB) version, is being used by Chinese smartphone companies such as Xiaomi and Transsion.

The company says the new memory chip offers a 50 percent improvement in data transfer speed and capacity compared to its previous low-power DDR4X, while reducing power consumption by 30 percent.

Previously, mainland technology giant Huawei Technologies surprised the world with its Mate 60 Pro smartphone model equipped with advanced domestically produced chips.

Third-party analysis reports conclude that the chip could be manufactured by China's leading chip foundry, SMIC.

This week, Loongson, a company specializing in developing central processing chips, also announced the 3A6000 chip with power equivalent to Intel CPUs of 2020.

Founded in 2016, CXMT represents China's best hope of catching up with South Korean memory chip giants such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, as well as Micron Technology in the global DRAM market.

Samsung introduced the industry's first 8GB LPDDR5 chip in 2018 and updated it to a 16GB LPDDR5X chip based on a 14nm process in 2021, delivering data processing speeds of up to 8,500 megabits per second, 1.3 times faster than the previous generation.

SK Hynix began mass production of LPDDR5 mobile DRAM in March 2021, while Micron announced LPDDR5 chips in early 2020, which it said would be used in Xiaomi's Mi 10 smartphone.

Under the new US regulations updated in October, a series of key chip foundry equipment including lithography, etching, deposition, implantation and cleaning are all on the export restriction list, limiting Beijing's semiconductor production capacity to the lowest level, around 14nm for logic chips, 18nm half-pitch for DRAM or smaller, and 128 layers for 3D NAND memory chips.

(According to SCMP)

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