South Korean memory specialist SK hynix has partnered with Taiwan’s TSMC to co-develop next-generation HBM4 memory and advanced packaging technology CoWoS 2. The two companies’ joint announcement follows that of rival Samsung, who recently revealed plans for HBM4 memory development, with a planned launch in 2025. SK hynix plans to secure HBM4 for mass production in 2026; the memory will boast high speeds and storage capacities, enabled by 16-Hi stacks.
More About SK Hynix and TSMC
The partnership between SK hynix, a giant in AI memory, and a leading logic foundry TSMC promises to supercharge HBM technology development. The cooperation’s full potential will be realized by integrating the companies’ knowledge and experience in terms of product design, foundry processes, and memory alignment.
SK hynix plans to adopt TSMC’s state-of-the-art foundry process to maximize the potential of HBM4. In the initial stage of optimization, SK hynix focuses on boosting the potential of the base die. The base die is the most important beam in HBM packages and is essential as it interacts with the GPU, regulating the functioning of the HBM stack. Since the base die is designed using TSMC’s state-of-the-art logic process, SK hynix powerfully integrates diverse functions into very confined base dies.
Through this approach, SK hynix provides HBM solutions, which can be tailor-made to cover a broad spectrum of performance and power efficiency needs. In addition, HBM4 shall be connected to TSMC’s CoWoS2, a connected device facilitating speedy and effective 3D pooling ideas. Through this integration, SK hynix can optimize the performance and potential of HBM solutions.
This partnership is expected to have a significant impact on the development of next-generation AI and GPU accelerators from industry leaders such as NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel. By leveraging their combined resources and expertise, SK hynix and TSMC aim to push the boundaries of memory performance and drive innovation in advanced packaging technologies.
Overall, the collaboration between SK hynix and TSMC represents a strategic effort to advance the capabilities of HBM memory and address the evolving needs of high-performance computing applications in fields such as artificial intelligence, data centers, and graphics processing.
