As we all know, Samsung is the worldwide leader when it comes to advanced memory technology. They aim to uphold that distinction with the commencement of production of the second generation of the 8GB High Bandwidth Memory-2 DRAM. The 1st generation HMB2 from Samsung, Flarebolt, was a momentous achievement and an industry-changer, and early data shows that this will be no different. The revamped solution will be known as Aquabolt.
New HBM2 from Samsung is a powerhouse
Aquabolt is the industry’s first HBM2 to deliver a 2.4 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) data transfer speed per pin, which is the highest level of DRAM performance at 1.2V. It equates to a performance upgrade of nearly 50 percent per package, compared to the company’s 1st-generation 8GB HBM2 package (with 1.6Gbps pin speed at 1.2V and 2.0Gbps at 1.35V).
Samsung says with these improvements, a single 8GB HBM2 package will offer 307 gigabytes-per-second (GBps) data bandwidth, achieving essentially 10 times faster data transmission than an 8 gigabit (Gb) GDDR5 chip, which provides 32GBps data bandwidth.
Enough about the numbers, and more about the hardware. To achieve such improvements, Samsung increased and also modified the number of TSVs (electrical connections for silicon dies), in addition to making thermal cooling enhacements. They also included an additional protective layer at the bottom of the DRAM package to increase its overall strength.
Samsung says they will provide Aquabolt DRAM to their global IT customers, and “continue to rapidly advance its memory technology in conjunction with leading OEMs throughout a wide array of fields including supercomputing, artificial intelligence, and graphics processing.”
