Samsung was a bit late to the high-bandwidth memory party which enabled cross-town rival SK Hynix to run with the ball and establish a solid footing in the industry. While Samsung has made efforts to capitalize on the AI boom with its HBM3E memory modules, the results are far from what the company would have wanted.
To ensure that there isn't a repeat of what happened, the company is turning its attention to the next-gen CXL DRAM early in order to properly capitalize on the increased demand for high-end memory modules that the AI boom is creating.
CXL DRAM market will be worth billions in the coming years
Samsung isn't a stranger to CXL. The company has been developing CXL for over a decade and is now testing its products with partners for performance validation. Samsung actually developed the industry's first CXL DRAM in May 2021 and also launched the world's first 512GB CXL DRAM chip back in 2022.
Jangseok Choi, VP of Samsung's new business planning team, said during a media briefing that the company intends to mass produce 256GB CXL 2.0 compatible DRAM later this year. Samsung expects that the CXL market will start booming in earnest during the second half of this year and “explosively grow” from 2028.
CXL, or computer express link, improves the efficiency of DRAM and other storage modules when used in high-performance servers. CXL makes it possible to increase memory capacity and bandwidth much more than what's currently possible. The demand is expected to be significant as AI and machine learning takes off, since they require incredible data processing power.
