Ahead-looking: Main chipmaking corporations have been attempting to stack completely different sorts of silicon parts onto one another for fairly a while. Now, Samsung is outwardly able to debut a big development that integrates logic chips with high-bandwidth RAM.
Samsung launched its latest and most superior chip packaging expertise and repair roadmap throughout the Samsung Foundry Discussion board 2024 occasion. In line with unnamed trade sources quoted by the Korea Economic system Each day and Samsung’s personal statements, the brand new tech will debut in fourth-gen high-bandwidth reminiscence due out in 2025.
Samsung’s new stacking resolution represents a big development in chip design. It’s the first 3D packaging expertise formally launched by the world’s largest reminiscence producer and one of many few corporations with the experience and instruments required to supply such superior chips. Present stacking applied sciences are based mostly on a “2.5D” design, the place the HBM reminiscence chip connects horizontally to the underlying logic chip (principally GPUs) by way of a silicon interposer.
The 3D packaging expertise developed by Samsung seemingly eliminates the necessity for an interposer, enabling “true” vertical stacking between the reminiscence chip and the logic silicon parts. Nevertheless, making a 3D packaging design requires a brand new base die for HBM reminiscence, introducing a way more complicated course of expertise into the equation.
Samsung’s 3D packaging resolution is predicated on a platform referred to as SAINT, or Samsung Superior Interconnect Expertise. The tech has been in improvement for years and consists of completely different approaches for various kinds of silicon. The SAINT-S resolution is for SRAM die on logic die stacking, SAINT-L is for logic die on logic die stacking, and SAINT-D is for DRAM die on logic die stacking.
Because of 3D packaging, future GPUs will present quicker information switch charges, cleaner electrical alerts, decreased energy consumption, and decrease latency ranges. Nevertheless, the 3D packaging options may even come at the next price, and Samsung is outwardly considering providing them as a “turnkey” service to promote extra HBM chips to prospects.
The Korean company is anticipated to finalize the SAINT-D course of this yr, with HBM4 reminiscence expertise arriving subsequent yr. Corporations creating AI accelerators, notably Nvidia, are Samsung’s major enterprise targets for the brand new expertise, based on Korea Each day. Nevertheless, SAINT-D would require a chip redesign effort that no identified firm is presently engaged on.
