SK hynix Lands In NVIDIAs Request To Sample Next-Gen HBM3E DRAM For Future AI GPUs

SK Hynix has reportedly received a request from NVIDIA to sample its next-gen HBM3E DRAM to power future GPUs in the AI & HPC segment.

SK hynix's HBM3E Memory Reportedly Coming To Next-Gen NVIDIA GPUs For AI & HPC Segment

Last month, SK Hynix announced its 5th Generation HBM or High-Bandwidth Memory solution known as HBM3E which would offer faster data transfer rates. The HBM3E memory will offer an 8.0Gbps transfer rate and is expected to sample in the second half of this year and enter mass production in the first half of 2024. This makes it the perfect choice for future NVIDIA GPUs aiming at the AI and HPC segment.

According to Asian tech outlets, Business Korea and DigiTimes, it looks like NVIDIA itself has now requested a sample of SK Hynix's HBM3E memory. NVIDIA and SK Hynix have already partnered in offering the first HBM3 and HBM2E products. The current generation of Hopper GPUs which are also the fastest GPUs available within the AI segment, currently adopt HBM3 memory & up to 80 GB capacities with a rumored 120 GB variant expected to launch later this year.

The current HBM3 stacks also run at up to 3.2 Gbps effective clock speeds so an 8.0 Gbps stack will offer up to 5.12 TB/s of bandwidth on the same 5120-bit wide bus interface that Hopper offers. This marks a 2.5x speedup in memory bandwidth speeds. Current HBM3 DRAM comes in 12-Hi stacks & these allow for up to 24 GB capacities with speeds of up to 6.4 Gbps.

So the maximum potential of the HBM3 DRAM has yet to be realized but NVIDIA may entirely skip it in favor of HBM3E for the Hopper-Next GPUs which are expected to be codenamed "Blackwell". SK Hynix will secure a major partnership deal with NVIDIA as the green team is the leader in the HPC & AI segment, maintaining over 90% dominance in the market. If HBM3 supplies become an issue, then NVIDIA can also choose to go with Samsung which is also preparing its own Snowbolt HBM3P memory that would offer up to 5 TB/s bandwidth per stack.

Intel and AMD will be battling the green giant with their own upcoming Falcon Shores and Instinct MI300X GPU offerings but they need to be tested on real grounds first & by the time the actual volume is available for those chips, the next-gen from NVIDIA will already be on the horizon.

Written by Hassan Mujtaba