Samsung will be rolling out a new HBM memory design every new year instead of two as it tries to catch up with rising AI demands.
AI Super Cycle Pushes Samsung To Move From 2-Year HBM Memory Development Cycle To 1-Year
HBM is an integral part of various accelerators that are powering the AI ecosystem. Samsung is one of the vital players in the HBM and DRAM segment, & aims to shorten its development cycles drastically to align itself with the growth trajectory in the AI segment, reports Korean outlet Busan.
For years, Samsung has been developing new HBM standards at a 2-year pace. Currently, the memory maker offers HBM3E as its latest and greatest, with HBM4 being the next step. HBM4 is expected to roll out later this year with next-gen accelerators such as NVIDIA's Vera Rubin platform and AMD's Instinct MI400 platforms. Several players also leverage older HBM standards to avert rising costs, while offering competitive value.
But since AI growth is going at an accelerated pace, Samsung has decided that it no longer sees its 2-year HBM development cycle as viable for the company. As such, it has decided to shift to a 1-year cycle, which will allow the company to put out next-generation HBM standards at a rapid pace.
Samsung Electronics is pursuing a roadmap to reduce the time required for HBM generation replacement from around two years to within one year. An official familiar with the internal situation stated, "The company has established and is implementing a plan to introduce a new generation of HBM every year in line with the launch cycles of new AI accelerators from major clients such as Nvidia."
Via Busan News
This will also help Samsung align with the industry, which has moved to a yearly cadence in terms of AI accelerator rollout. At the same time, this will help Samsung retain a competitive edge against other HBM players such as Micron and SK Hynix. A 1-year cycle ensures Samsung's survival and prevents it from being left out in terms of technology.
Through this, it is analyzed that Samsung Electronics will be able to secure a strong lead in the customer 'custom HBM5' market. This aligns with the demands of global big tech companies seeking to shorten product development periods and maximize supply chain efficiency. This is because reducing the development cycle to one year offers the advantage of being able to flexibly respond to changes in the customer's roadmap.
via Busan News
Samsung also does everything in-house, which plays well in its hands. From the production of the base die to memory stacking and packaging. The company also has an ideal base die solution that is compliant with its HBM ventures.
Technologies such as Hybrid Bonding are also crucial, as they pave the way for the custom HBM-next solutions, such as HBM5 and custom HBM. The first of these efforts will be seen with HBM4E, which is on track for sampling in the second half of this year.
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
