Having suffered certain setbacks in supplying HBM3E for Nvidia’s needs, the South Korean company Samsung Electronics is trying to make up for lost time in preparation for the mass release of HBM4 memory. By the end of this year, it will have digital designs of the corresponding chips, and mass production of 12-layer HBM4 stacks should be established by the end of next year.
Image Source: Samsung Electronics
At least, this is how the South Korean publication The Elec describes Samsung’s plans. In this case, we have to count on a formal announcement of HBM4 by Samsung in the spring of 2025, since from the creation of a digital project to the start of production of the first product samples, it usually takes three to four months. Most likely, Samsung will be able to start shipping HBM4 samples to its customers within the next year.
According to the source, Samsung intends to launch the production of the logical part of the HBM4 chip using its 4nm process technology, and the memory chips in the stack will be produced using the 10nm sixth-generation class (1c) process technology. Competing SK hynix is going to launch production of 12-layer HBM4 memory in the second half of next year; it will produce the logical part using 5-nm or 12-nm technology by TSMC, but it will produce memory chips in the stack independently, but has not yet decided on a specific stage of the 10nm process technology (1b or 1c). To prepare for the production of HBM4 chips using 1c technology, Samsung will have to invest in equipping specialized production lines. Installation of equipment will begin in the middle of next year, mass production is planned to begin in 2026. By that time, AMD and Nvidia will release their Instinct MI400 and Rubin computing accelerators, which will be equipped with HBM4 memory.