Memory Chip for Supercomputer
Samsung Electronics Co. announced on January 11 that it has started mass production of its 2nd-generation 8-gigabyte (GB) High Bandwidth Memory-2 (HBM2) with the fastest data transmission speed on the market on January 11.
HBM is a new type of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) for processing data and is used for supercomputer, network and graphic card due to its exceptionally high processing speeds. Samsung Electronics is the only semiconductor firm producing the HBM in the world.
The new solution, Aquabolt, which is the company’s 2nd-generation 8GB HBM2 DRAM to deliver a 2.4 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) data transfer speed per pin at 1.2 volt, can process 307GB of data, which is equivalent to 61 full HD 5GB movies, in one second. It is 9.6 times faster data transmission than an 8GB GDDR5 high-performance graphics DRAM chip with 8Gbps.
The Aquabolt, which has begun mass production from December last year, is a package stacked 8 levels of 8GB chips on a buffer chip. Samsung said it has achieved 2.4Gbps for the first time in the industry by using its core technologies such as “signal transmission optimized designing” and “heating control.”
In particular, using four of the 2.4Gbps 8GB packages in a system will enable a 1.2 terabytes-per-second (Tbps) bandwidth, which will improve overall system performance by as much as 50 percent, compared to its first-generation system which offers 1.6Gbps and 0.82TB.
Samsung Electronics exceptionally labeled a brand name Aquabolt for the latest HBM2 DRAM chip. It is a compound word using aqua, which is the basic essential for human survival, and bolt, which means as fast as thunderbolt.
An official from Samsung Electronics said, “With the latest mass production, Samsung Electronics is the only company in the industry that supplies the HBM2 DRAM chip. The company plans to expand to claim triple its share in premium HBM2 DRAM markets including supercomputing and the graphics card markets.”
In addition, Samsung Electronics has started supplying the Aquabolt to global IT companies and it will strengthen its partnership with supercomputer manufacturers, AI solution developers and graphics firms in the future.