SK hynix to begin shipping latest HBM3E chips to Nvidia

SK hynix will begin delivering its fifth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips — the 3E — to Nvidia by the end of this month, nabbing yet another significant lead in the highly competitive space.

SK hynix put 12-layered HBM3E chips on display at Nvidia's GTC event in San Jose, California on Monday. [YONHAP]

SK hynix is set to begin delivering its fifth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips — the 3E — to Nvidia by the end of this month, nabbing yet another significant lead in the highly competitive space.

The Korean chipmaker said Tuesday it started mass production of the eight-layered HBM3E and will begin delivery to the client after finishing the verification process. It is the first time for a chipmaker to make an announcement on HBM3E shipping to a client.

They will be deployed on Nvidia's H200 GPU, according to industry sources, which is expected to launch in the second quarter of this year.

SK hynix's HBM3E chips [SK HYNIX]

The HBM3E, the most advanced type of HBM available for mass production, is able to process 1.18 terabytes of data in a second; equivalent to downloading 230 films in full-HD quality within a second, according to SK hynix.

Its heat dissipation performance, a critical factor enabling large amounts of data processing in a short amount of time, has been enhanced by 10 percent thanks to its advanced MR-MUF (mass reflow molded underfill) packaging technology, the chipmaker said.

"With the success story of the HBM business and the strong partnership with customers that it has built for years, SK hynix will cement its position as the total AI memory provider," Ryu Sung-soo, head of SK hynix's HBM business, said in a release.

HBM is a premium type of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chip that stacks dies vertically to enable the processing of more data with low energy consumption. The ongoing AI frenzy has been driving up demand, leading to a supply shortage.

With SK hynix in the lead, Samsung Electronics and U.S. firm Micron are playing catch-up. Micron last month announced the mass production of HBM3E, possibly for prototypes only, while Samsung Electronics aims to begin mass production in the first half of this year.

SK hynix's announcement on Tuesday of HBM3E shipments coincides with Nvidia's GTC conference in San Jose, California. Nvidia unveiled the much-anticipated B100 GPU at the event on Monday, which is equipped with 208 billion transistors compared to the H100's 80 billion and has an inference speed 2.5 times faster, according to the chip giant.

The B100 will have up to 192GB of HBM3E memory, translating to eight 24GB HBM3E chips, while the soon-to-launch H200 works on six of them, propelling demand by the GPU maker for the premium memory products. The portion of HBM in the DRAM market is forecast to double this year from 9 percent to 18 percent, according to tech market tracker TrendForce. The GTC conference was awash with HBM promotion from the major players, with Samsung Electronics unveiling its 12-layered HBM3E chips for the first time at its booth. SK hynix displayed its 12-layered product, for which a mass production timeline hasn't been confirmed, while Micron also participated by presenting its eight-layered HBM3E chip.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]