Stronger Cooperation
Intel will open a data center development lab in Seoul. The U.S. tech giant will strengthen cooperation with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which provide next-generation DDR5 memory.
According to industry sources, Intel announced at Intel Vision 2023 in Taiwan on Jan. 24 that it will establish an advanced data center development lab in Seoul. The exact size of the lab was not specified. The lab is expected to go live within this year.
Intel plans to open labs in six countries total – Korea, the United States, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and India. In Seoul, the lab will conduct certification and research on memory for data centers, including compute express link (CXL) DRAM, DDR5 DRAM, and other recently popular types of DRAM. Outside of Seoul, the labs will also conduct research and certification on semiconductors for servers.
“The data center development lab to be built in Seoul will play a role in verifying and certifying the compatibility of DRAM supplied to Intel CPUs,” an industry insider said, adding, “Intel is expected to enjoy stronger cooperation with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which make DRAM, through the lab.”
Data centers collect large amounts of information. The artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud markets have been growing rapidly in recent years. The number of large-scale data centers is surging, especially in the U.S. big tech industry. In particular, sales of DDR5 are expected to increase as replacement demand for server CPUs from hyperscalers (large data center companies) grows.
Meanwhile, Intel, which holds a share of nearly 80 percent of the global CPU market, recently launched its server CPU Sapphire Rapids. It is the first CPU to support DDR5, a high-value-added RAM semiconductor, so has attracted much attention from the semiconductor industry. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are accelerating the development of next-generation DRAM as the DDR5 market has been blooming.
SK hynix completed the development of 10 nm Gen 5 (1b) technology, the smallest DRAM available, and provided server-grade DDR5 with this technology to Intel for verification in the Intel Data Center Memory Certification Program. Samsung Electronics also recently began volume production of 16GB DDR5 DRAM using a 12-nm process. The two companies plan to supply various applications such as data centers, artificial intelligence, and next-generation computing.