Samsung starts production to roll out world’s fastest 4GB HBM DRAM
Samsung Electronics, the South Korean manufacturer has issued a press release on Tuesday that it has started mass-producing the world’s fastest 4-gigabyte high bandwidth memory (HBM) dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip.
Samsung’s new HBM solution will be used in high-performance computing (HPC), advanced graphics, network systems and enterprise servers, and is said to offer DRAM performance that is “seven times faster than the current DRAM performance limit”.
This will actually allow faster responsiveness for high-end computing tasks including parallel computing, graphics rendering and machine learning.
“By mass producing next-generation HBM2 DRAM, we can contribute much more to the rapid adoption of next-generation HPC systems by global IT companies,” said Samsung Electronics’ SVP of memory marketing, Sewon Chun.
“Also, in using our 3D memory technology here, we can more proactively cope with the multifaceted needs of global IT, while at the same time strengthening the foundation for future growth of the DRAM market.”
The 4GB HBM2 DRAM, which uses Samsung’s 20nm process technology and advanced HBM chip design, is specifically aimed at next-generation HPC systems and graphics cards. It also satisfies the need for high performance, energy efficiency and reliability, the company said.
“The 4GB HBM2 package is created by stacking a buffer die at the bottom and four 8Gb core dies on top. These are then vertically interconnected by TSV holes and microbumps,” explained Samsung.
“A single 8Gb HBM2 die contains over 5,000 TSV holes, which is more than 36 times that of an 8Gb TSV DDR4 die, offering a dramatic improvement in data transmission performance compared to typical wire-bonding based packages.”
Samsung’s new DRAM package features 256GBps of bandwidth, which is double that of an HBM1 DRAM package. This is equivalent to a more than seven-fold increase over the 36GBps bandwidth of a 4GB GDDR5 DRAM chip, which has the fastest data speed per pin (9Gbps) among currently manufactured DRAM chips.
The firm’s 4GB HBM2 also enables enhanced power efficiency by doubling the bandwidth per watt over a 4Gb GDDR5-based solution, and embeds error-correcting code functionality to offer high reliability.
Later this year, Samsung plans to follow up with an 8GB HBM2 DRAM package. The firm said that by using these in graphics cards, vendors will see more than 95 percent of space saving compared with using GDDR5 DRAM, allowing them to offer solutions targeting more compact devices that require high-level graphics computing capabilities.
In order to meet an anticipated growth in demand for network systems and servers, the firm will increase production volumes of HBM2 DRAM parts over the course of this year. It also plans to expand its line-up of HBM2 DRAM solutions in a bid to “stay ahead in the high-performance computing market”
