SK hynix Inc. announced today that it has begun volume production of HBM3E, the newest AI memory product with ultra-high performance, for supply to a customer from late March. The company made public its success with the HBM3E development just seven months ago. SK hynix being the first provider of HBM3E, a product with the best performing DRAM chips, extends its earlier success with HBM3. The company expects a successful volume production of HBM3E, along with its experiences also as the industry's first provider of HBM3, to help cement its leadership in the AI memory space.

In order to build a successful AI system that processes a huge amount of data quickly, a semiconductor package should be composed in a way that numerous AI processors and memories are multi-connected. Global big tech companies have been increasingly requiring stronger performance of AI semiconductor and SK hynix expects its HBM3E to be their optimal choice that meets such growing expectations.

With the effective reduction of production by suppliers, the price of memory is rebounding, and the semiconductor memory market finally shows signs of recovery. From the perspective of market dynamics and demand changes, NAND Flash, as one of the two major memory products, is experiencing a new round of changes. Since 3Q23, NAND Flash chip prices have been on the rise for several consecutive months. TrendForce believes that, under the precondition of a conservative market demand prospect for 2024, chip price trends will depend on suppliers' production capacity utilization.

There have been frequent developments in the NAND flash memory industry chain, with some manufacturers indicating a willingness to raise prices or increase production capacity utilization. Wallace C. Kou, General Manager of NAND Flash Supplier SIMO, stated that prices for the second quarter of NAND Flash have already been settled down, which will increase by 20%; some suppliers have started to make profits in the first quarter, and most suppliers will earn money after the second quarter.

SK Hynix believes that it leads the industry with the development and production of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) solutions, but rival memory manufacturers are working hard on equivalent fifth generation packages. NVIDIA was expected to select SK Hynix as the main supplier of HBM3E parts for utilization on H200 "Hopper" AI GPUs, but a surprise announcement was issued by Micron's press team last month. The American firm revealed that HBM3E volume production had commenced: ""(our) 24 GB 8H HBM3E will be part of NVIDIA H200 Tensor Core GPUs, which will begin shipping in the second calendar quarter of 2024. This milestone positions Micron at the forefront of the industry, empowering artificial intelligence (AI) solutions with HBM3E's industry-leading performance and energy efficiency."

According to a Korea JoongAng Daily report, this boast has reportedly "shocked" the likes of SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics. They believe that Micron's: "announcement was a revolt from an underdog, as the US company barely held 10 percent of the global market last year." The article also points out some behind-the-scenes legal wrangling: "the cutthroat competition became more evident when the Seoul court sided with SK Hynix on Thursday (March 7) by granting a non-compete injunction to prevent its former researcher, who specialized in HBM, from working at Micron. He would be fined 10 million won for each day in violation." SK Hynix is likely pinning its next-gen AI GPU hopes on a 12-layer DRAM stacked HBM3E product—industry insiders posit that evaluation samples were submitted to NVIDIA last month. The outlook for these units is said to be very positive—mass production could start as early as this month.

South Korean tech insiders believe that SK Hynix has sent "12-layer DRAM stacked HBM3E (5th generation HBM)" prototype samples to NVIDIA—according a ZDNET.co.kr article, initial examples were shipped out last month. Reports from mid-2023 suggested that Team Green had sampled 8-layer HBM3E (4th gen) units around summer time—with SK Hynix receiving approval notices soon after. Another South Korean media outlet, DealSite, reckons that NVIDIA's memory qualification process has exposed HBM yield problems across a number of manufacturers. SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron are competing fiercely on the HBM3E front—with hopes of getting their respective products attached to NVIDIA's H200 AI GPU. DigiTimes Asia proposed that SK Hynix is ready to "commence mass production of fifth-generation HBM3E" at some point this month.

SK Hynix is believed to be leading the pack—insiders believe that yield rates are good enough to pass early NVIDIA certification, and advanced 12-layer samples are expected to be approved in the near future. ZDNET reckons that SK Hynix's forward momentum has placed it an advantageous position: "(They) supplied 8-layer HBM3E samples in the second half of last year and passed recent testing. Although the official schedule has not been revealed, mass production is expected to begin as early as this month. Furthermore, SK Hynix supplied 12-layer HBM3E samples to NVIDIA last month. This sample is an extremely early version and is mainly used to establish standards and characteristics of new products. SK Hynix calls it UTV (Universal Test Vehicle)... Since Hynix has already completed the performance verification of the 8-layer HBM3E, it is expected that the 12-layer HBM3E test will not take much time." SK Hynix's Vice President recently revealed that his company's 2024 HBM production volumes for were already sold out, and leadership is already preparing innovations for 2025 and beyond.

According to sources close to Seoul Economy, and reported by DigiTimes, Intel has reportedly chosen Samsung as a supplier for its next-generation Lunar Lake processors, set to debut later this year. The report notes that Samsung will provide LPDDR5X memory devices for integration into Intel's processors. This collaboration could be a substantial win for Samsung, given Intel's projection to distribute millions of Lunar Lake CPUs in the coming years. However, it's important to note that this information is based on a leak and has not been officially confirmed. Designed for ultra-portable laptops, the Lunar Lake-MX platform is expected to feature 16 GB or 32 GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory directly on the processor package. This on-package memory approach aims to minimize the platform's physical size while enhancing performance over traditional memory configurations. With Lunar Lake's exclusive support for on-package memory, Samsung's LPDDR5X-8533 products could significantly boost sales.

While Samsung is currently in the spotlight, it remains unclear if it will be the sole LPDDR5X memory provider for Lunar Lake. Intel's strategy involves selling processors with pre-validated memory, leaving the door open for potential validation of similar memory products from competitors like Micron and SK Hynix. Thanks to a new microarchitecture, Intel has promoted its Lunar Lake processors as a revolutionary leap in performance-per-watt efficiency. The processors are expected to utilize a multi-chipset design with Foveros technology, combining CPU and GPU chipsets, a system-on-chip tile, and dual memory packages. The CPU component is anticipated to include up to eight cores, a mix of four high-performance Lion Cove and four energy-efficient Skymont cores, alongside advanced graphics, cache, and AI acceleration capabilities. Apple's use of on-package memory in its M-series chips has set a precedent in the industry, and with Intel's Lunar Lake MX, this trend could extend across the thin-and-light laptop market. However, systems requiring more flexibility in terms of configuration, repair, and upgrades will likely continue to employ standard memory solutions like SODIMMs and/or the new CAMM2 modules that offer a balance of high performance and energy efficiency.

SK hynix Inc. announced today that it recorded an operating profit of 346 billion won in the fourth quarter of last year amid a recovery of the memory chip market, marking the first quarter of profit following four straight quarters of losses. The company posted revenues of 11.31 trillion won, operating profit of 346 billion won (operating profit margin at 3%), and net loss of 1.38 trillion won (net profit margin at negative 12%) for the three months ended December 31, 2023. (Based on K-IFRS)

SK hynix said that the overall memory market conditions improved in the last quarter of 2023 with demand for AI server and mobile applications increasing and average selling price (ASP) rising. "We recorded the first quarterly profit in a year following efforts to focus on profitability," it said. The financial results of the last quarter helped narrow the operating loss for the entire year to 7.73 trillion won (operating profit margin at negative 24%) and net loss to 9.14 trillion won (with net profit margin at negative 28%). The revenues were 32.77 trillion won.

V-COLOR announces the launch of their DDR5 overclocking R-DIMM the TRX50 Motherboards powered by AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series processors with capacity 192 GB (4x48GB) ready to hit the market in speeds ranging from 6400 MHz up to 7200 MHz for end users who require the maximum capacity and speed. This package is geared toward content makers, intensive 3D modelers, AI programmers, trading machines, and HFT (high frequency trading) firms.

With EXPO ready v-color DDR5 OC R-DIMM memory is ready to for full potential, designed for a diverse user base that includes both non-overclocking users and overclocking enthusiasts, with a specific focus on content creators, intensive 3D modelers, AI programmers, trading machines or HFT (high frequency trading) companies. This kit is meticulously crafted with the most advanced SK Hynix DDR5 chips and Automated Binning sort for more reliability and endurance, continuously tested for full compatibility with all the motherboards TRX50.

SK hynix Inc. announced today that it has started commercialization of the LPDDR5T (Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo), the world's fastest DRAM for mobile with 9.6 Gbps speed. The company said that it has obtained the validation that the LPDDR5T is compatible with Qualcomm Technologies' new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform, marking the industry's first case for such product to be verified by the U.S. company.

SK hynix has proceeded with the compatibility validation of the LPDDR5T, following the completion of the development in January, with support from Qualcomm Technologies. The completion of the process means that it is compatible with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. With the validation process with Qualcomm Technologies, a leader in wireless telecommunication products and services, and other major mobile AP (Application Processor) providers successfully completed, SK hynix expects the range of the LPDDR5T adoption to grow rapidly.

SK hynix Inc. showcased today the sample of the 321-layer 4D NAND, making public the progress on its development of the industry's first NAND with more than 300 layers. The company gave a presentation on the progress on the development of its 321-layer 1 Tb TLC 4D NAND Flash and displayed the samples at the Flash Memory Summit (FMS) 2023 taking place Aug. 8-10 in Santa Clara.

SK hynix is the first in the industry to unveil the progress on the development of a NAND with more than 300 layers in detail. The company plans to raise the level of completion of the 321-layer product and start mass production from the first half of 2025. The company said its technological competitiveness accumulated from the success of the world's highest 238-layer NAND, already in mass production, paved the way for a smooth progress for the development of the 321-layer product. "With another breakthrough to address stacking limitations, SK hynix will open the era of NAND with more than 300 layers and lead the market."

SK hynix Inc. announced today that it has started mass production of its 238-layer 4D NAND Flash memory, following the development in August 2022, and that product compatibility test with a global smartphone manufacturer is underway. "SK hynix has developed solution products for smartphones and client SSDs which are used as PC storage devices, adopting the 238-layer NAND technology, and has moved into mass production in May," the company said. "Given that the company secured world-class competitiveness in price, performance and quality for both 238-layer NAND and the previous generation 176-layer NAND, we expect these products to drive earnings improvement in the second half of the year."

The 238-layer product - the smallest NAND in size - has a 34% higher manufacturing efficiency compared to the previous generation of 176-layer, resulting in a significant improvement in cost competitiveness. Besides, with a data-transfer speed of 2.4 Gb per second, a 50% increase from the previous generation, and approximately 20% increase in read and write speed, the company is confident that it will be able to deliver an improved performance to the smartphone and PC customers using this technology.

SK hynix Inc. announced today that it has completed the development of the industry's most advanced 1bnm, the fifth-generation of the 10 nm process technology, while the company and Intel began a joint evaluation of 1bnm and validation in the Intel Data Center Certified memory program for DDR5 products targeted at Intel Xeon Scalable platforms.

The move comes after SK hynix became the first in the industry to reach 1anm readiness and completed Intel's system validation of the 1anm DDR5, the fourth-generation of the 10 nm technology. The DDR5 products provided to Intel run at the world's fastest speed of 6.4 Gbps (Gigabits per second), representing a 33% improvement in data processing speed compared with test-run products in early days of DDR5 development.

Colorful Technology Company Limited, a professional manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards, all-in-one gaming and multimedia solutions, and high-performance storage, proudly introduces the CVN ICICLE DDR5 high-performance memory for enthusiasts and overclockers. With a high-speed configuration of DDR5-6600 MHz frequency, this memory is built for speed.

The CVN ICICLE DDR5 memory supports Intel XMP 3.0 technology that allows users to boost performance with ease via the BIOS by activating the predefined and tested Intel XMP profile. Furthermore, its advanced heatsink design provides excellent heat dissipation to achieve higher overclocks.

Last October, the US Department of Commerce imposed semiconductor restrictions on Chinese imports of equipment for processes of 18 nm and below. SK hynix's Wuxi fab was granted a one-year production license, but geopolitical risks and weak demand prompted the company to reduce wafer starts by about 30% per month in 2Q23, according to TrendForce's latest research.

TrendForce reports that SK hynix had planned to transition its Wuxi fab's mainstream process from 1Y nm to 1Z nm, decreasing the output of legacy processes. However, due to limitations imposed by the US ban, the company instead opted to increase the share of its 21 nm production lines, focus-ing on DDR3 and DDR4 4Gb products. SK hynix's long-term strategy involves shifting its capacity expansion back to South Korea, while the Wuxi fab caters to domestic demand in China and the legacy-process consumer DRAM market.

SK hynix Inc. (or "the company", www.skhynix.com) today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023. The company recorded revenues of 5.088 trillion won, operating loss of 3.402 trillion won (with operating margin of negative 67%), and net loss of 2.586 trillion won (with net profit margin of negative 51%) in the first quarter of 2023.

"As the memory chip downturn continued through the first quarter, the company posted a sequential drop in revenues and widened operating loss on sluggish demand and falling products prices," SK hynix said. "But we expect revenues to rebound in the second quarter after bottoming out in the first, driven by a gradual increase in sales volume."

Earlier this month, it was reported that the Chinese Government could retaliate to the U.S. ban on YMTC by banning Idaho-based Micron Technology from selling memory products to Chinese firms—something that can severely hit Micron's bottom-line if you consider the various smartphone brands and PC OEMs based out of China, not to mention foreign companies that manufacture the entire spectrum of consumer electronics in China.

While Beijing is still making up its mind on whether go ahead with this ban, Washington threw a wrench in the works, by "urging" South Korean memory giants Samsung and SK Hynix not to fill the shortfall in supply left by a ban on Micron. It stands to reason that a similar request has been made with Kioxia, which is majority-owned by Bain Capital. Therefore, if China were to ban Micron, it would have to do so only after scaling up production at YMTC to make up for the supply, or end up with a chip shortage that can hurt Chinese ICT and PC firms in the immediate aftermath of the ban.

SK hynix announced today it has become the industry's first to develop 12-layer HBM3 product with a 24 gigabyte (GB) memory capacity, currently the largest in the industry, and said customers' performance evaluation of samples is underway. HBM (High Bandwidth Memory): A high-value, high-performance memory that vertically interconnects multiple DRAM chips and dramatically increases data processing speed in comparison to traditional DRAM products. HBM3 is the 4th generation product, succeeding the previous generations HBM, HBM2 and HBM2E

"The company succeeded in developing the 24 GB package product that increased the memory capacity by 50% from the previous product, following the mass production of the world's first HBM3 in June last year," SK hynix said. "We will be able to supply the new products to the market from the second half of the year, in line with growing demand for premium memory products driven by the AI-powered chatbot industry." SK hynix engineers improved process efficiency and performance stability by applying Advanced Mass Reflow Molded Underfill (MR-MUF)# technology to the latest product, while Through Silicon Via (TSV)## technology reduced the thickness of a single DRAM chip by 40%, achieving the same stack height level as the 16 GB product.

Thermaltake today introduced its ToughRAM D5 RGB series DDR5 memory in multiple color options that it had shown off in its 2023 CES booth. Today's release sees the memory modules in six color variants—Turquoise, Racing Green, Metallic Gold, Racing Red, White, and Black. These come with the distinctive Thermaltake "TT" design, and are capped with silicone diffusers for the 8 RGB LEDs that you can control using the TT RGB Plus 2.0 app.

Thermaltake sells these only in 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) kits, rated for DDR5-5600, 36-36-36-76 timings, and 1.1 V to 1.25 V DRAM voltage. These are based on SK Hynix M-die DRAM chips in single-rank 8x 16 Gbit configuration. What's interesting is that even to achieve its rather modest DDR5-5600 speed, Thermaltake included both Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO profiles. The company didn't reveal pricing.

A strong growth in AI server shipments has driven demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM). TrendForce reports that the top three HBM suppliers in 2022 were SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron, with 50%, 40%, and 10% market share, respectively. Furthermore, the specifications of high-end AI GPUs designed for deep learning have led to HBM product iteration. To prepare for the launch of NVIDIA H100 and AMD MI300 in 2H23, all three major suppliers are planning for the mass production of HBM3 products. At present, SK hynix is the only supplier that mass produces HBM3 products, and as a result, is projected to increase its market share to 53% as more customers adopt HBM3. Samsung and Micron are expected to start mass production sometime towards the end of this year or early 2024, with HBM market shares of 38% and 9%, respectively.

AI server shipment volume expected to increase by 15.4% in 2023
NVIDIA's DM/ML AI servers are equipped with an average of four or eight high-end graphics cards and two mainstream x86 server CPUs. These servers are primarily used by top US cloud services providers such as Google, AWS, Meta, and Microsoft. TrendForce analysis indicates that the shipment volume of servers with high-end GPGPUs is expected to increase by around 9% in 2022, with approximately 80% of these shipments concentrated in eight major cloud service providers in China and the US. Looking ahead to 2023, Microsoft, Meta, Baidu, and ByteDance will launch generative AI products and services, further boosting AI server shipments. It is estimated that the shipment volume of AI servers will increase by 15.4% this year, and a 12.2% CAGR for AI server shipments is projected from 2023 to 2027.

TrendForce reports that the US Department of Commerce recently released details regarding its CHIPS and Science Act, which stipulates that beneficiaries of the act will be restricted in their investment activities—for more advanced and mature processes—in China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia for the next ten years. The scope of restrictions in this updated legislation will be far more extensive than the previous export ban, further reducing the willingness of multinational semiconductor companies to invest in China for the next decade.

CHIPS Act will mainly impact TSMC; and as the decoupling of the supply chain continues, VIS and PSMC capture orders rerouted from Chinese foundries
In recent years, the US has banned semiconductor exports and passed the CHIPS Act, all to ensure supply chains decoupling from China. Initially, bans on exports were primarily focused on non-planar transistor architecture (16/14 nm and more advanced processes). However, Japan and the Netherlands have also announced that they intend to join the sanctions, which means key DUV immersion systems, used for producing both sub-16 nm and 40/28 nm mature processes, are likely to be included within the scope of the ban as well. These developments, in conjunction with the CHIPS Act, mean that the expansion of both Chinese foundries and multinational foundries in China will be suppressed to varying degrees—regardless of whether they are advanced or mature processes.

Semiconductor manufacturers worldwide are forecast to increase 300 mm fab capacity to an all-time high of 9.6 million wafers per month (wpm) in 2026, SEMI announced today in its 300 mm Fab Outlook to 2026 report. After strong growth in 2021 and 2022, the 300 mm capacity expansion is expected to slow this year due to soft demand for memory and logic devices.

"While the pace of the global 300 mm fab capacity expansion is moderating, the industry remains squarely focused on growing capacity to meet robust secular demand for semiconductors," said Ajit Manocha, SEMI President and CEO. "The foundry, memory and power sectors will be major drivers of the new record capacity increase expected in 2026."

The homebrew and modification community has delved deeper into the recent bout of bricked Nintendo Wii U consoles, unlucky owners are seeing their systems throwing up error codes that indicate an internal memory failure. As covered on TPU almost two weeks ago, it was speculated that leaving a Wii U in a long-term state of unuse was a root cause of the problem. It is now theorized that a simple choice of memory chip is the real issue behind the corruptions, and not a case of leaving your unplugged Wii U stashed in a box somewhere.

An online database has been established on hackmd.io, and a member is collecting hard data from Wii U owners across various online communities and sources. Early indications show that consoles fitted with a Hynix eMMC are leading the pack in terms of number of system failures, Samsung-equipped models are placed in a distant second place, and the Toshiba variant is reported as having zero problems.

SK Hynix representatives unveiled the company's latest breakthrough in 3D NAND development at the ISSCC 2023 conference. Details of a new flash memory prototype featuring over 300 layers were revealed, and the company stated that a team of 35 engineers had contributed to the presentation material. In order to highlight the boost in performance offered by the prototype's improvements, it was compared to SK Hynix's previous record holding seventh-generation 238-layer 3D NAND. The new eighth-generation 3D NAND posted bandwidth figures with a maximum of 194 MB/s, which contrasts favorably with the older model's rate of 164 MB/s, representing an 18% increase in performance.

Recording density also benefits from the 300+ active layer design, with SK Hynix mentioning a 1 Tb (128 GB) capacity with triple level cells and a bit density of over 20 GB/mm^2. The chip features a 16 KB page size, four planes and a 2400 MT/s interface. The increase in density will result in a lower per-Tb cost during the manufacturing process. It is hoped that the end consumer will ultimately benefit from the boost in performance and capacity.

SK Hynix ran into issues earlier this month at one of its DRAM production fabs, due to impurities in zirconium high-k materials used in the production. The materials were supplied by SK Trichem and due to the impurities, the equipment at SK Hynix fab ended up leading to increased pressure in some of the manufacturing equipment and forced the production to be shut down. All the equipment at the fab had to be cleaned and some even replaced due to the impurities in the material.

The zirconium high-k material is deposited at the atomic level, atop the capacitors of the DRAM, as a precursor. Any impurities in such a material would lead to failed DRAM chips, but apparently there was no damage to the DRAM wafer production in this case, according to SK Hynix. The company will be ordering replacement material from two other suppliers for the time being and SK Trichem should be supplying a fresh batch by the end of the month.

SK hynix Inc. (or "the company") reported today financial results for 2022 ended on December 31. The company recorded revenues of 44.648 trillion won, an operating profit of 7.007 trillion won and a net income of 2.439 trillion won. Operating and net profit margin for the full year was 16% and 5%, respectively. "Revenues continued to grow last year, but the operating profit decreased compared with a year earlier as the industry entered into a downturn from the second half," the company said. "With uncertainties still lingering, we will continue to reduce investments and costs, while trying to minimize the impact of the downturn by prioritizing markets with high growth potential."

In 2022, SK hynix increased high-capacity DRAM shipments for server/PC markets, while boosting sales of DDR5 and HBM - of which products that the company has a solid market leadership - to customers in the growing markets of AI, Big Data, and cloud computing. Particularly, revenues for the data center SSD more than quadrupled compared with a year earlier.

SK hynix Inc. announced today that it has developed the world's fastest mobile DRAM 'LPDDR5T (Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo)' and provided sample products to customers. The new product, LPDDR5T, operates at a data rate of 9.6 gigabits per second (Gbps), 13% faster than the previous generation LPDDR5X unveiled in November 2022. To highlight the maximum speed the product features, SK hynix added 'Turbo' at the end of the standard name LPDDR5.

LPDDR5T, which operates in the ultra-low voltage range of 1.01 to 1.12 V set by the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council), is a product that not only features utmost speed but ultra-low power consumption. "The company pushed the technology to new limits in just two months after LPDDR5X, mobile DRAM with 8.5 Gbps specification, was introduced to the market in November 2022," SK hynix said. "We will solidify our leadership in the mobile DRAM market by providing products of various storage capacities that meet customers' needs."