Samsung, the South Korean tech giant, has made several groundbreaking announcements at its annual Memory Tech Day in San Jose. The highlight of the event was the introduction of Shinebolt, Samsung’s highly-anticipated HBM3E memory. This new memory technology is set to offer higher memory bandwidth and capacity for high-end processors, revolutionizing the industry.
Shinebolt HBM3E memory serves as the successor to Samsung’s current-generation HBM3 memory. It aims to address the growing demands of high-bandwidth memory technology by providing higher capacities and greater memory bandwidth than its predecessor. This will enable high-end processors to handle increasingly complex workloads.
The impressive Shinebolt is based on a new 24Gbit HBM memory die manufactured using Samsung’s cutting-edge D1a process. It will be available in both 8Hi and 12Hi stacks, offering total capacities of 24GB and 36GB respectively. These capacities represent a significant 50% increase compared to equivalent HBM3 memory technology.
Not only does Shinebolt promise larger capacities, but it is also expected to achieve remarkable memory clock speeds of up to 9.8Gbps/pin. This is more than 50% faster than Samsung’s current HBM3 products, resulting in a minimum bandwidth of 1TB/sec and a maximum bandwidth of 1.225TB/sec. These impressive performance metrics place Shinebolt well ahead of HBM3 memory, making it ideal for high-end processors, especially in the AI market where memory bandwidth and capacity are crucial.
Samsung plans to ship Shinebolt in 2024, although specific release dates have yet to be provided. However, the tech giant has also given us a glimpse into the future with its plans for HBM4 memory technology. HBM4 will leverage advanced fab and packaging technologies such as FinFET transistors for memory and bumpless (direct copper-to-copper) bonding for packaging. This exciting advancement is expected to be available in the market a few years down the line.
Additionally, Samsung shared updates on its GDDR7 memory, bringing significant technological updates to the GDDR family of memory standards. GDDR7 features a switch to PAM3 encoding, allowing for improved memory transfer rates without the need to increase bus frequency. Compared to GDDR6, GDDR7 offers a remarkable 33% improvement in bandwidth per pin, resulting in a total aggregate bandwidth of 1TB/sec for a 256-bit memory bus.
Samsung foresees GDDR7 being adopted by AI chip makers and the automotive industry. Although mass production dates for GDDR7 have not been announced, Samsung aims to be the first vendor to bring this next-generation memory to the market in 2024.
Overall, Samsung’s Memory Tech Day showcased the tech giant’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of memory technology. With Shinebolt HBM3E memory and the upcoming HBM4 memory, along with the updates to GDDR7, Samsung is set to make significant contributions to the high-end processor market and other industries reliant on cutting-edge memory solutions.
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