Samsung Electronics: Flashbolt Third-Gen High Bandwidth Memory 2E

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced the market launch of Flashbolt, its third-gen High Bandwidth Memory 2E (HBM2E).

This 16GB HBM2E is suited to maximize HPC systems and help system manufacturers to advance their HPCs, AI-driven data analytics and graphics systems in a timely manner.

“With the introduction of the highest performing DRAM available today, we are taking a critical step to enhance our role as the leading innovator in the fast-growing premium memory market,” said Cheol Choi, EVP, memory sales and marketing, Samsung. “Samsung will continue to deliver on its commitment to bring truly differentiated solutions as we reinforce our edge in the global memory marketplace.“

Ready to deliver twice the capacity of the previous-gen 8GB HBM2 Aquabolt, the Flashbolt also increases performance and power efficiency to improve next-gen computing systems. The 16GB capacity is achieved by vertically stacking 8 layers of 10nm-class (1y) 16Gb DRAM dies on top of a buffer chip. This HBM2E package is then interconnected in a precise arrangement of more than 40,000 ‘through silicon via’ (TSV) microbumps, with each 16Gb die containing over 5,600 of these microscopic holes.

Flashbolt provides a reliable data transfer speed of 3.2Gb/s by leveraging a proprietary optimized circuit design for signal transmission, while offering a memory bandwidth of 410GB/s per stack. The HBM2E can also attain a transfer speed of 4.2Gb/s, the maximum tested data rate to date, enabling up to a 538GB/s bandwidth per stack in certain future applications. This would represent a 1.75x enhancement over Aquabolt’s 307GB/s.

The company expects to begin volume production during 2H20. It will continue providing its second-gen Aquabolt lineup while expanding its third-gen Flashbolt offering, and will further strengthen collaborations with ecosystem partners in next-gen systems as it accelerates the transition to HBM solutions throughout the memory market.