A couple of weeks ago, a mysterious trademark application revealed that Samsung is trying to secure the term “Snowbolt” for an unreleased product that has everything to do with DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory). In the meantime, two more trademark applications related to DRAM have emerged, confirming that whatever Snowbolt is, it won't be alone.
Samsung Electronics is also trying to trademark the “Shinebolt” and “Flamebolt” monikers at KIPRIS (Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service). And as you may have guessed, both Shinebolt and Flamebolt share their “Designated goods” descriptions with the original Snowbolt trademark.
In other words, these trademarks are linked to “DRAM modules with high bandwidth for use in high-performance computing equipment, artificial intelligence, and supercomputing equipment,” as well as “DRAM with high bandwidth for use in graphic cards.”
Samsung may be preparing to manufacture DRAM for supercomputers
The descriptions for Snowbolt, Shinebolt, and Flamebolt suggest that Samsung is trying to secure these trademarks for unreleased DRAM products that are meant to compete at the cutting edge of memory technology. But that's not the only clue hinting at Samsung's ambitions.
While holding a lecture at KAIST recently, the president of Samsung SDS, Kye Hyung Kyung, revealed that the company expects memory solutions to become critical in AI server development.
Powerful memory solutions focused on AI performance could even outperform NVIDIA's GPUs, and according to the Samsung executive, the company is very serious about making memory semiconductor-centered supercomputers a reality by 2028. Especially now that AI solutions like ChatGPT appear to be getting a lot of traction and attention.
It's too early to know with certainty, but these recent DRAM-related trademarks might have everything to do with Samsung's new ambitions of making memory solutions the key to future AI supercomputers. If not, the trademarks could be related to more advanced memory solutions for consumer-grade GPUs that may be coming to the market before 2028.
