HBM3E memory with a whopping 9.6 GT/s (9.6 gigatransfers, or billions of transfers a second, a typical measurement of memory bandwidth) data transfer rate over a 1024-bit interface has just hit mass production. But the demands of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) industries are growing rapidly, so HBM4 memory with a 2048-bit interface is just about two years away. A vice president of SK Hynix recently said that his company is on track to mass produce HBM4 by 2026, reports Business Korea.
"With the advent of the AI computing era, generative AI is rapidly advancing," said Chun-hwan Kim, vice president of SK hynix, said at SEMICON Korea 2024. "The generative AI market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 35%."
The rapid growth of the generative AI market calls for higher-performance processors, which in turn need higher memory bandwidth. As a result, HBM4 will be needed to radically increase DRAM throughput. SK Hynix hopes to start making next-generation HBM by 2026, which suggests late 2025. This somewhat corroborates Micron's plan to make HBM4 available in early 2026.
