SK hynix Achieves Industry-First Intel Certification for 256GB DDR5 Server Memory
December 18, 2025
In a significant development for the data center and AI infrastructure markets, SK hynix has secured a key technological validation. The South Korean memory giant announced it is the first in the industry to complete Intel's Data Center Certified process for its 256GB DDR5 RDIMM server memory module on the Intel Xeon 6 platform. This milestone underscores the critical role of advanced, high-capacity memory in powering the next generation of AI and compute-intensive workloads.
The certification signifies that SK hynix's module, which utilizes the company's latest 32Gb fifth-generation 10nm-class (1b) DRAM, has passed extensive testing and rigorous validation at Intel's Advanced Data Center Development Laboratory. This ensures reliable performance, compatibility, and quality when paired with Intel Xeon processors. This achievement builds upon a similar validation SK hynix received earlier in January 2025 for a 256GB product based on 16Gb fourth-generation DRAM.
The newly certified module offers tangible performance and efficiency gains crucial for modern data centers. Servers equipped with this 256GB DDR5 RDIMM can deliver up to 16% higher AI inference performance compared to systems using 32Gb die-based 128GB products. Furthermore, by leveraging the more advanced 32Gb DRAM chips, the design achieves approximately 18% lower power consumption than the previous-generation 256GB modules based on 16Gb DRAM, offering improved performance per watt.
Industry executives highlighted the collaboration and market implications of this development. "We are now able to respond more swiftly to customer needs, solidifying our leadership in the server DDR5 DRAM market," said Sangkwon Lee, head of DRAM Product Planning & Enablement at SK hynix. "As a full-stack AI memory creator, we will actively address the growing demand for high-performance, low-power, and high-capacity memory solutions."
Intel's Dr. Dimitrios Ziakas, Vice President of Platform Architecture in the Data Center Group, added, "This achievement represents the culmination of collaborative engineering efforts across Intel and SK hynix and demonstrates our shared commitment to advancing memory technology. The high-capacity module addresses the increasingly demanding requirements of capacity-hungry workloads of AI applications."
The certification positions SK hynix to expand cooperation with major global data center operators. As AI models evolve to handle complex logical processes, requiring exponentially larger datasets to be processed in real-time, the demand for reliable, high-capacity memory has become a primary bottleneck and a key differentiator for server performance. This validation is expected to accelerate the adoption of high-density DDR5 solutions in AI-driven infrastructure.
Source: digitimes
SK hynix Achieves Industry-First Intel Certification for 256GB DDR5 Server Memory
