SK hynix Inc. announced today the successful development of its most advanced 1bnm (billion nanometer) technology, which represents the fifth generation of the 10nm process technology.
Concurrently, the company has partnered with Intel to evaluate and validate the 1bnm technology within the Intel Data Center Certified memory program for DDR5 products designed for Intel® Xeon® Scalable platforms.
This achievement follows SK hynix's earlier milestone as the first company in the industry to achieve readiness for 1anm (anm refers to the next nanometer size in the progression) and complete Intel's system validation of the 1anm DDR5, the fourth-generation of the 10nm technology.
The DDR5 products provided to Intel operate at an impressive speed of 6.4Gbps (Gigabits per second), making them the fastest in the world. This speed represents a 33% improvement in data processing compared to the test-run products during the initial stages of DDR5 development.
In the early development phase, DDR5 test-run products operated at 4.8Gbps, while the JEDEC standards specify a maximum speed of 8.8Gbps for DDR5.
Additionally, the 1bnm DDR5 products utilize a high-K metal gate (HKMG) process, resulting in a reduction of power consumption by over 20% compared to the 1anm DDR5 products.
The HKMG process incorporates a high dielectric constant (K) material in the insulating film of the DRAM transistor, mitigating leakage current and improving capacitance. This process not only decreases power consumption but also enhances speed.
SK hynix previously introduced the world's first HKMG process for mobile DRAM and later adopted the technology for its 9.6Gbps LPDDR5T mobile DRAM.
The company highlights that the development of the latest 1bnm technology positions the company to provide global customers with DRAM products that deliver exceptional performance and performance per watt.
“SK hynix expects the validation process of the 1bnm DDR5 product with Intel to go smoothly following a successful validation of our 1anm server DDR5 product compatibility with the 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors,” Jonghwan Kim, Head of DRAM Development at SK hynix, said.
“Amid growing expectations that the memory market will start to recover from the second half, we believe our industry-leading DRAM technology, proven again through mass production of the 1bnm process this time, will help us improve earnings from the second half,” Kim said, adding that the 1bnm process will be adopted for a wider range of products such as LPDDR5T and HBM3E in the first half of 2024.
HBM3E (HBM3 Extended) is the fifth-generation High Bandwidth Memory product, succeeding HBM, HBM2, HBM2E, and HBM3. SK hynix plans to produce samples of the HBM3E product, capable of operating at a data processing speed of 8Gbps, in the second half of this year, with mass production commencing in 2024.
Intel Vice President of Memory and IO Technologies, Dr. Dimitrios Ziakas said, “Intel has been collaborating with the memory industry to ensure compatibility of DDR5 memory on Intel® Xeon® Scalable platform. SK hynix 1bnm is the first of its generation being targeted for the next Intel® Xeon® Scalable platform” and the Intel Data Center Certified memory program.
Meanwhile, SK hynix revealed that additional validation processes are underway to incorporate its 1anm DDR5, for which the initial compatibility test has already been completed, into the upcoming generation of Intel® X.
