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NAND Flash Industry Revenue Grows 2.9% in 3Q23, Expected to Surge Over 20% in Q4

TrendForce reports a pivotal shift in the NAND Flash market for 3Q23, primarily driven by Samsung's strategic decision to reduce production. Initially, the market was clouded by uncertainty regarding end-user demand and fears of a subdued peak season, prompting buyers to adopt a conservative approach with low inventory and slow procurement. However, as market leaders like Samsung implemented substantial production cuts, buyers' attitudes shifted toward a more aggressive procurement strategy in anticipation of a market supply decrease. This led to a stabilization and even an uptick in NAND Flash contract prices by quarter-end, driving a 3% QoQ increase in bit shipments and culminating in a total revenue of US$9.229 billion, marking an approximate 2.9% increase.

The story unfolds with Kioxia and Micron—the only two to witness a dip in revenue rankings this quarter—while Samsung maintained its robust performance. Despite sluggish demand in the server sector, Samsung's fortunes rebounded thanks to a boost in consumer electronics, especially with high-capacity products in PCs and smartphones. Samsung emerged from a trough in Q3, with strategic inventory replenishments fueling further strategic stocking, and a shift in operational focus toward maximizing profit. This led to a minor 1-3% decrease in shipped bits, but a 1-3% increase in ASP, stabilizing Q3 NAND Flash revenue at US$2.9 billion.

Micron Unveils the 3500 NVMe Client SSD for Gaming, Content Creation and Scientific Computing

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced it is shipping the Micron 3500 NVMe SSD, which leverages its 232-layer NAND to power demanding workloads for business applications, scientific computing, cutting-edge gaming and content creation, pushing the limits of what is possible. The Micron 3500 SSD, available in the M.2 form factor and with capacities up to 2 TB, provides a superior user experience over the competition as proven by its best-in-class SPECwpcsm performance, including an up to 71% improvement for product development applications.

"At Micron, we are focused on delivering exceptional products that best meet the rigorous needs of end-users," said Prasad Alluri, Micron's vice president and general manager of Client Storage. "With impressive specs like a remarkable 132% improvement in scientific computing benchmark scores, the 3500 SSD will turn your next PC or workstation into a powerhouse to enable insights and empower creativity."

Contract Prices Bottom Out in Q3, Reigniting Buyer Momentum and Boosting DRAM Revenue by Nearly 20%, Notes Report

TrendForce investigations reveal a significant leap in the DRAM industry for 3Q23, with total revenues soaring to US$13.48 billion—marking 18% QoQ growth. This surge is attributed to a gradual resurgence in demand, prompting buyers to re-energize their procurement activities. Looking ahead to Q4, while suppliers are firmly set on price hikes, with DRAM contract prices expected to rise by approximately 13-18%, demand recovery will not be as robust as in previous peak seasons. Overall, while there is demand for stockpiling, procurement for the server sector remains tentative due to high inventory levels, suggesting limited growth in DRAM industry shipments for Q4.

Three major manufacturers witnessed Q3 revenue growth. Samsung's revenue increased by about 15.9% to US$5.25 billion thanks to stable demand for high-capacity products fueled by AI advancements and the rollout of its 1alpha nm DDR5. SK hynix showcased the most notable growth among manufacturers with a 34.4% increase, reaching about US$4.626 billion and significantly narrowing its market share gap with Samsung to less than 5%. Micron's revenue rose by approximately 4.2% to US$3.075 billion—despite a slight drop in ASP—supported by an upswing in demand and shipment volumes.

Manufacturers Anticipate Completion of NVIDIA's HBM3e Verification by 1Q24; HBM4 Expected to Launch in 2026

TrendForce's latest research into the HBM market indicates that NVIDIA plans to diversify its HBM suppliers for more robust and efficient supply chain management. Samsung's HBM3 (24 GB) is anticipated to complete verification with NVIDIA by December this year. The progress of HBM3e, as outlined in the timeline below, shows that Micron provided its 8hi (24 GB) samples to NVIDIA by the end of July, SK hynix in mid-August, and Samsung in early October.

Given the intricacy of the HBM verification process—estimated to take two quarters—TrendForce expects that some manufacturers might learn preliminary HBM3e results by the end of 2023. However, it's generally anticipated that major manufacturers will have definite results by 1Q24. Notably, the outcomes will influence NVIDIA's procurement decisions for 2024, as final evaluations are still underway.

Micron Announces 128GB DRAM Low-Latency, High-Capacity RDIMMs

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), today demonstrated its industry leadership by announcing its 32Gb monolithic die-based 128 GB DDR5 RDIMM memory featuring best-in-class performance of up to 8000 MT/s to support data center workloads today and into the future. These high-capacity, high-speed memory modules are engineered to meet the performance and data-handling needs of a wide range of mission-critical applications in data center and cloud environments, including artificial intelligence (AI), in-memory databases (IMDBs) and efficient processing for multithreaded, multicore count general compute workloads.

Powered by Micron's industry-leading 1β (1-beta) technology, the 32Gb DDR5 DRAM die-based 128 GB DDR5 RDIMM memory delivers the following enhancements over competitive 3DS through-silicon via (TSV) products:
  • more than 45% improved bit density
  • up to 24% improved energy efficiency
  • up to 16% lower latency
  • up to a 28% improvement in AI training performance

Crucial Launches New T500 Gen 4 NVMe SSD

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), today announced the availability of the Crucial T500 Gen 4 NVMe SSD as an expansion of its award-winning NVMe solid-state drive (SSD) portfolio. The Crucial T500 SSD is a best-in-class PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive, which leverages Micron's advanced 232-layer 3D NAND technology with industry-leading NAND I/O speeds of 2.4 gigabytes per second (GB/s) and is engineered to improve performance for console and PC gamers, photo and video editors and content creators. Available in two options, the T500 SSD with the heatsink is specifically designed for platforms like the PlayStation 5 (PS5) and PC gaming rigs, while the version without the heatsink fits well in laptops, desktops and workstations.

The T500 offers up to a 40% higher performance-to-power ratio, and speeds that are two times faster than the previous Gen 3 NVMe SSD offering. With lightning-fast sequential read and write speeds up to 7,400 MB/s and 7,000 MB/s respectively, Crucial T500 SSDs enable gamers to load games up to 16% faster, get quicker game texture renders and reduced CPU utilization with Microsoft DirectStorage. Likewise, it is easy to install and has up to 2 TB of storage - making it perfect for PS5 upgrades or UHD/8K+ videos. The T500 also delivers up to 42% faster performance in content creation applications, allowing users to run heavy workloads and render photos or videos faster.

Micron Announces Sampling of 9.6 Gbps LPDDR5X Memory

Micron Technology, Inc., announced today that it is now shipping production samples of its low-power double data rate 5X (LPDDR5X) memory - the industry's only 1β (1-beta) mobile-optimized memory - for use with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.'s latest flagship mobile platform, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Running at the world's fastest speed grade of 9.6 gigabits per second (Gbps), Micron LPDDR5X provides the mobile ecosystem with the fast performance needed to unlock generative artificial intelligence (AI) at the edge. Enabled by its innovative, industry-leading 1β process node technology, Micron LPDDR5X also delivers advanced power-saving capabilities for mobile users.

"Generative AI is poised to unleash unprecedented productivity, ease of use, and personalization for smartphone users by delivering the power of large language models to flagship mobile phones," said Mark Montierth, corporate vice president and general manager of Micron's Mobile Business Unit. "Micron's 1β LPDDR5X combined with Qualcomm Technologies' AI-optimized Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform empowers smartphone manufacturers with the next-generation performance and power efficiency essential to enabling revolutionary AI technology at the edge."

Micron Low-Power Memory Solution Boosts Mixed and Virtual Reality Experiences on Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2

Micron Technology, Inc., announced today that its low-power double data rate 5X (LPDDR5X) DRAM and Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 3.1 embedded solutions are now qualified on Qualcomm Technologies' latest extended reality (XR) platform, Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 Platform. Micron's LPDDR5X and UFS 3.1 deliver next-level speed, performance and low-power consumption in the smallest form factors needed to support untethered mixed reality (MR) and virtual reality (VR) devices. Micron's LPDDR5X is the company's most advanced low-power memory, delivering power efficiency enabled by its innovative 1-alpha process node technology and JEDEC power advancements.

The global augmented reality (AR) and VR market is expected to reach $200 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 24% from 2021.1 Micron's embedded products provide robust XR-ready solutions to accelerate customer adoption and realize the potential of this expanding market. Enabling concurrent processing across multiple applications and sensors, Micron's LPDDR5X and UFS 3.1 seamlessly integrate constantly changing presence, position and sensory perception in the metaverse to create realistic, immersive experiences for VR users.

Micron Delivers Industry-Leading Mainstream PCIe Gen4 Data Center SSD

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced the Micron 7500 NVMe SSD for data center workloads. The 7500 SSD is the world's only mainstream data center SSD to feature 200+ layer NAND, utilizing Micron's 232-layer NAND and enabling up to 242% better random write performance than competitive drives. The SSD also delivers sub-1 millisecond (1 ms) latency for 6x9s quality-of-service (QoS) in mainstream drives, creating a new, industry-leading class of SSDs perfectly suited to deliver the consistency required in the cloud. The Micron 7500 SSD is designed to meet the demands of storage-intensive data center workloads, such as artificial intelligence (AI), databases, content delivery, real-time analytics, social media platforms, cloud computing and virtualization. Its remarkable QoS and performance provide rapid, reliable responsiveness for these demanding workloads. For example, the drive improves RocksDB performance by up to 2.1 times versus competitive SSDs.

"The Micron 7500 SSD is a game-changer for data center workloads, delivering blazing-fast performance, exceptional QoS reliability and advanced security unmatched by any other SSD in its class," said Alvaro Toledo, vice president and general manager of Micron's Data Center Storage group. "Thanks to Micron's industry-leading 232-layer NAND technology, we have achieved a breakthrough in latency, enabling response times below 1 ms for 6x9s QoS in mainstream drives. This means our customers can run their data-intensive workloads faster, more efficiently and with more predictability than ever before."

Micron Commemorates 45 Years of Innovation with the Inauguration of its State-of-the-Art Assembly & Test Facility in Malaysia

Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world's largest semiconductor companies, today marked a historic day with the opening of its new cutting-edge assembly and test facility in Batu Kawan, Penang, alongside the celebration of Micron's 45th anniversary. A ceremony officiated by Chief Minister of Penang, Yang Amat Berhormat Tuan Chow Kon Yeow, underscored the regional significance of Micron's expansion, highlighting the company's four and a half decades of innovation and excellence.

Micron previously invested $1 billion and will add up to another billion including construction and full equipping of this new facility over the next few years in Penang to increase factory space to a total of 1.5 million square feet. This expansion enables Micron Malaysia to boost production output and further strengthen its assembly and test capabilities, allowing it to supply leading-edge NAND, PCDRAM and SSD modules to meet the growing demand for transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous or electric vehicles.

Micron Delivers High-Speed 7,200 MT/s DDR5 Memory Using 1β Technology

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced it has extended its industry-leading 1β (1-beta) process node technology with the introduction of 16Gb DDR5 memory. With demonstrated in-system functionality at speeds up to 7,200 MT/s, Micron's 1β DDR5 DRAM is now shipping to all data center and PC customers. Micron's 1β-based DDR5 memory with advanced high-k CMOS device technology, 4-phase clocking and clock-sync provides up to a 50% performance uplift and 33% improvement in performance per watt over the previous generation.

As CPU core counts increase to meet the demands of data center workloads, the need for higher memory bandwidth and capacities grows significantly to overcome the 'memory wall' challenge while optimizing the total cost of ownership for customers. Micron's 1β DDR5 DRAM allows computational capabilities to scale with higher performance enabling applications like artificial intelligence (AI) training and inference, generative AI, data analytics, and in-memory databases (IMDB) across data center and client platforms. The new 1β DDR5 DRAM product line offers current module densities in speeds ranging from 4,800 MT/s up to 7,200 MT/s for use in data center and client applications.

Micron Initiates Construction on Leading-Edge Memory Manufacturing Fab

Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world's largest semiconductor companies and the only U.S.-based manufacturer of memory, will today celebrate the start of construction on the nation's first new memory manufacturing fab in 20 years. Company executives will join Idaho Governor Brad Little, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean, other community partners and team members to mark the milestone with a ceremonial concrete pour at Micron's Boise headquarters on the 45th anniversary of the company's founding.

Just over a year ago, Micron announced its plans to invest approximately $15 billion through the end of the decade to construct a new fab for leading-edge memory manufacturing, to be co-located with the company's R&D epicenter in its hometown of Boise. Through the lifespan of the project, Micron will directly infuse $15.3 billion into the Idaho economy and directly spend $13.0 billion with Idaho businesses. The project will create over 17,000 new Idaho jobs, including 2,000 Micron direct jobs, furthering the need for a diverse, highly skilled workforce.

Micron Technology Reports Results for the Fourth Quarter and Full Year of Fiscal 2023

Micron Technology Inc. today announced results for its fourth quarter and full year of fiscal 2023, which ended August 31, 2023.

"During fiscal 2023, amid a challenging environment for the memory and storage industry, Micron sustained technology leadership, launched a significant number of leading-edge products, and took decisive actions on supply and cost," said Micron Technology President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra. "Our 2023 performance positions us well as a market recovery takes shape in 2024, driven by increasing demand and disciplined supply. We look forward to record industry TAM revenue in 2025 as AI proliferates from the data center to the edge."

Investments in capital expenditures, net were $1.01 billion for the fourth quarter of 2023 and $7.01 billion for the full year of 2023, which resulted in adjusted free cash flows of negative $758 million for the fourth quarter of 2023 and negative $5.45 billion for the full year of 2023. Micron ended the year with cash, marketable investments, and restricted cash of $10.52 billion. On September 27, 2023, Micron's Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.115 per share, payable in cash on October 25, 2023, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on October 10, 2023.

TSMC Announces Breakthrough Set to Redefine the Future of 3D IC

TSMC today announced the new 3Dblox 2.0 open standard and major achievements of its Open Innovation Platform (OIP) 3DFabric Alliance at the TSMC 2023 OIP Ecosystem Forum. The 3Dblox 2.0 features early 3D IC design capability that aims to significantly boost design efficiency, while the 3DFabric Alliance continues to drive memory, substrate, testing, manufacturing, and packaging integration. TSMC continues to push the envelope of 3D IC innovation, making its comprehensive 3D silicon stacking and advanced packaging technologies more accessible to every customer.

"As the industry shifted toward embracing 3D IC and system-level innovation, the need for industry-wide collaboration has become even more essential than it was when we launched OIP 15 years ago," said Dr. L.C. Lu, TSMC fellow and vice president of Design and Technology Platform. "As our sustained collaboration with OIP ecosystem partners continues to flourish, we're enabling customers to harness TSMC's leading process and 3DFabric technologies to reach an entirely new level of performance and power efficiency for the next-generation artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), and mobile applications."

Micron Breaks Ground on US$2.7 Billion Semiconductor Assembly Plant in India

This past weekend, Micron broke ground on what will be a new semiconductor assembly plant in Gujarat, India. The new facility is said to cover almost 0.4 square kilometres of land or 93 acres, on which phase one will include a 46.5 thousand square metre clean room. The first phase of the project is said to be built by Tata Projects and it's expected to start operating as early as the end of 2024, which seems somewhat optimistic considering how long it can take to build clean rooms of this size in other countries that have much more experience in building such facilities.

Micron is said to be investing a total of US$2.7 billion at the facility, although phase one has a budget of US$825 million as a first step. The full project is said to take five years to complete and is expected to bring some 5,000 direct jobs at the Micron plant. The plant will be a first-of-its-kind in India and Micron will be using it to assemble DRAM and NAND flash. Some of the investment is coming from the Indian government, but the reports don't mention how big of a share the government has contributed.

Q2 NAND Flash Revenue Up 7.4%, Anticipated to Exceed 3% Growth in Q3

TrendForce's latest research paints a vivid picture: Q2 saw the NAND Flash market still grappling with lackluster demand and being significantly outpaced by supply. The ASP of NAND Flash also took a hit, tumbling 10-15%. Nevertheless, there was a silver lining as bit shipments grew by 19.9% QoQ from a low baseline in 1Q23. To sum up, the Q2 landscape of the NAND Flash sector witnessed a 7.4% QoQ growth in revenue, reaching US$9.338 billion.

From Q2, Samsung began reining in production with a further squeeze expected for the third quarter. With inventories set to thin out, price hikes loom on the horizon, possibly offering a remedy to the chronic supply-demand imbalance. Yet, a crowded supplier landscape in the NAND Flash sector means that many players, faced with hefty inventories, will likely continue aggressive sales into Q3. Forecasts suggests a deceleration in ASP decline for NAND Flash products in Q3 to 5-10%. Riding the stockpiling momentum for the high season, bit shipments are set to rise, propelling Q3 revenue growth past the 3% threshold.

Suppliers Successfully Hike Wafer Contract Prices, Triggering Short-Term Surge in NAND Spot Market

Recently, the spot market for NAND Flash chips has seen a rise in active price inquiries for certain products, a movement driven by successful increases in wafer contract prices. TrendForce reports this uptick primarily stems from negotiations in late August between NAND Flash suppliers and key Chinese module makers. These discussions led to a new wafer contract that successfully boosted the price of 512 Gb wafers by approximately 10%.

Other suppliers have also raised prices for their comparable products, signaling a shift in supplier sentiment: they are now less inclined to finalize deals at lower prices. This change has contributed to a short-term surge in the wafer spot market. Nevertheless, whether this surge in procurement is supported by actual end-user demand remains uncertain, as these orders have arisen in reaction to adjustments in supply-side pricing.

Global Enterprise SSD Revenue Hits New Low in Q2 at US$1.5 Billion, Peak Season Growth Expected to Fall Short of Forecasts

TrendForce research reveals that, due to the impacts of high inflation and economic downturn, CSPs are adopting more conservative strategies when it comes to capital expenditure and consistently reducing their annual server demand forecasts. Currently, CSPs in China have reported a decline in cloud orders compared to last year, leading to a subsequent decrease in annual procurement volumes for enterprise SSDs. In North America, some clients have postponed mass production timelines for new server platforms while ramping up investments in AI servers. These factors have resulted in enterprise SSD orders falling below expectations. Consequently, global enterprise SSD revenue hit an all-time low in the second quarter, totaling just $1,500 million—a QoQ decrease of 24.9%.

Demand for AI servers remains strong in the third quarter, while orders and shipment momentum for general-purpose servers have yet to show signs of recovery. This continues to put pressure on the purchasing volume of enterprise SSDs, and annual bit volume is expected to be lower than last year. Meanwhile, vendors have once again reduced capacity utilization to slow down inventory growth. Server customers still maintain high inventory levels, and their purchasing momentum remains insufficient. This is expected to lead to an approximate 15% QoQ decline in the average price of enterprise SSDs in the third quarter, which may further result in a lackluster revenue performance for the peak season.

Q2 DRAM Industry Revenue Rebounds with a 20.4% Quarterly Increase, Q3 Operating Profit Margin Expected to Turn from Loss to Gains

TrendForce reports that rising demand for AI servers has driven growth in HBM shipments. Combined with the wave of inventory buildup for DDR5 on the client side, the second quarter saw all three major DRAM suppliers experience shipment growth. Q2 revenue for the DRAM industry reached approximately US$11.43 billion, marking a 20.4% QoQ increase and halting a decline that persisted for three consecutive quarters. Among suppliers, SK hynix saw a significant quarterly growth of over 35% in shipments. The company's shipments of DDR5 and HBM, both of which have higher ASP, increased significantly. As a result, SK hynix's ASP grew counter-cyclically by 7-9%, driving its Q2 revenue to increase by nearly 50%. With revenue reaching US$3.44 billion, SK hynix claimed the second spot in the industry, leading growth in the sector.

Samsung, with its DDR5 process still at 1Ynm and limited shipments in the second quarter, experienced a drop in its ASP by around 7-9%. However, benefitting from inventory buildup by module houses and increased demand for AI server setups, Samsung saw a slight increase in shipments. This led to an 8.6% QoQ increase in Q2 revenue, reaching US$4.53 billion, securing them the top position. Micron, ranking third, was a bit late in HBM development. However, DDR5 shipments held a significant proportion, keeping their ASP relatively stable. Boosted by shipments, its revenue was around US$2.95 billion, a quarterly increase of 15.7%. Both companies saw a reduction in their market share.

Micron Claims it Needs Government Funding to Develop New Fabs

According to Reuters, Micron has followed in Intel's footsteps and asked the US Government to pitch in to help the company build new fabs in Boise, Idaho and Clay, New York. The funds would be part of the CHIPS Act, which means Intel is going to have to fight for its share, since Pat Gelsinger is expecting Intel to get a bigger share than other companies. However, as Micron is also a US company, Intel will have less clout to convince politicians to favour it over the competition for the funds. The CHIPS Act has earmarked US$52.7 billion in subsidiaries for semiconductor production and research in the US.

Last September, Micron announced that it would be investing some US$15 billion in new facilities at its Idaho location by 2032, which the company claimed would create some 17,000 jobs by 2030 in the area. In October, the company went on to state that it would invest up to US$100 billion for the next 20 years in what Micron says will be the largest semiconductor production plant in the world at its Clay, New York location. However, now it looks like at least a sizable chunk of that money will come from the US taxpayers, rather than from Micron's own pocket. Time will tell how much each of the CHIPS Act applications will get, as if enough companies apply, the money might not go quite as far as some of these companies have hoped for.

Samsung Said to Produce 300-Layer V-NAND in 2024

It appears that Samsung is getting ready to beat SK Hynix in the race to 300 plus layers of NAND Flash, at least according to reports coming out of South Korea. The Seoul Economic Daily claims in an exclusive that Samsung will have a 300 plus layer V-NAND—(V for Vertical or 3D NAND—chip ready for production in 2024 and could as such beat SK Hynix by as much as a year, depending on how soon Samsung can deliver. Currently Samsung's most cutting edge stacked NAND is a 236-layer product, which is four more layers than Micron and YMTC, but two less than SK Hynix.

What sticks out in the Seoul Economic Daily news piece is that unlike SK Hynix, which is going for a triple stack sandwich, Samsung will apparently stick with two stacks. This means that Samsung is aiming for over 150-layers of NAND per stack, which seems like a big risk to take when it comes to yields. The taller the stacks, the bigger the chance of a failed stack, but maybe Samsung has found a solution around this potential issue. As modern 3D NAND relies on Through Silicon Vias, it's easier to manufacture denser stacks than in the past when wire bonding was used, but even so, this seems like a big risk for Samsung to take. That said, considering the current low demand and news of further cutbacks in production, it might be a good time for Samsung to utilise its fabs to test out this new, more densely stacked NAND to see if the company can mass produce it without issues. Samsung's roadmap calls for a 1000 plus layer V-NAND product by 2030, but it seems like the road there is still long and complicated.

Suppliers Amp Up Production, HBM Bit Supply Projected to Soar by 105% in 2024

TrendForce highlights in its latest report that memory suppliers are boosting their production capacity in response to escalating orders from NVIDIA and CSPs for their in-house designed chips. These efforts include the expansion of TSV production lines to increase HBM output. Forecasts based on current production plans from suppliers indicate a remarkable 105% annual increase in HBM bit supply by 2024. However, due to the time required for TSV expansion, which encompasses equipment delivery and testing (9 to 12 months), the majority of HBM capacity is expected to materialize by 2Q24.

TrendForce analysis indicates that 2023 to 2024 will be pivotal years for AI development, triggering substantial demand for AI Training chips and thereby boosting HBM utilization. However, as the focus pivots to Inference, the annual growth rate for AI Training chips and HBM is expected to taper off slightly. The imminent boom in HBM production has presented suppliers with a difficult situation: they will need to strike a balance between meeting customer demand to expand market share and avoiding a surplus due to overproduction. Another concern is the potential risk of overbooking, as buyers, anticipating an HBM shortage, might inflate their demand.

Micron Launches Memory Expansion Module Portfolio to Accelerate CXL 2.0 Adoption

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), today announced sample availability of the Micron CZ120 memory expansion modules to customers and partners. The Micron CZ120 modules come in 128 GB and 256 GB capacities in the E3.S 2T form factor, which uses PCIe Gen 5 x8 interface. Additionally, the CZ120 modules are capable of running up to 36 GB/s memory read/write bandwidth and augment standard server systems when incremental memory capacity and bandwidth is required. The CZ120 modules use Compute Express Link (CXL) standards and fully support the CXL 2.0 Type 3 standard. By leveraging a unique dual-channel memory architecture and Micron's high-volume production DRAM process, the Micron CZ120 delivers higher module capacity and increased bandwidth. Workloads that benefit from more memory capacity include AI training and inference models, SaaS applications, in-memory databases, high-performance computing and general-purpose compute workloads that run on a hypervisor on premise or in the cloud.

"Micron is advancing the adoption of CXL memory with this CZ120 sampling milestone to key customers," commented Siva Makineni, vice president of the Micron Advanced Memory Systems Group. "We have been developing and testing our CZ120 memory expansion modules utilizing both Intel and AMD platforms capable of supporting the CXL standard. Our product innovation coupled with our collaborative efforts with the CXL ecosystem will enable faster acceptance of this new standard, as we work collectively to meet the ever-growing demands of data centers and their memory-intensive workloads."

New AI Accelerator Chips Boost HBM3 and HBM3e to Dominate 2024 Market

TrendForce reports that the HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) market's dominant product for 2023 is HBM2e, employed by the NVIDIA A100/A800, AMD MI200, and most CSPs' (Cloud Service Providers) self-developed accelerator chips. As the demand for AI accelerator chips evolves, manufacturers plan to introduce new HBM3e products in 2024, with HBM3 and HBM3e expected to become mainstream in the market next year.

The distinctions between HBM generations primarily lie in their speed. The industry experienced a proliferation of confusing names when transitioning to the HBM3 generation. TrendForce clarifies that the so-called HBM3 in the current market should be subdivided into two categories based on speed. One category includes HBM3 running at speeds between 5.6 to 6.4 Gbps, while the other features the 8 Gbps HBM3e, which also goes by several names including HBM3P, HBM3A, HBM3+, and HBM3 Gen2.

Micron Updates Roadmap, Promises 32 Gbit DDR5 and GDDR7 for 2024

During yesterday's HBM3 Gen2 memory products yesterday, Micron also shared an updated roadmap with select media and partners. The most interesting details on that roadmap were updates to DRAM and GDDR memory products, with increases in capacity coming for both types of memory. Micron is aiming to launch 32 Gbit or 4 GB DDR5 memory ICs somewhere in the beginning of 2024, which means we can look forward to 32 GB single sided DIMMs with a single DRAM die per memory IC. This should, in theory at least, enable cheaper 32 GB DIMMs, but as always, it's unlikely that the cost saving will be passed on to the end customer. As far as server customers goes, Micron is planning 128 GB DIMMs for 2024, followed by 192 GB DIMMs in 2025 and 256 GB DIMMs in 2026.

When it comes to GDDR, Micron will be launching JEDEC standard GDDR7 memory with 16 and 24 Gbit dies, or 2 and 3 GB capacity, the latter could be the highest capacity GDDR7 memory IC on the market and could see some interesting graphics card configurations. Micron is promising speeds of up to 32 Gbps per pin or 128 GB/s per chip, which is a big jump up from its current best GDDR6X memory which tops out at 24 Gbps per pin or 96 GB/s per chip. GDDR7 differs from Micron's proprietary GDDR6X by using PAM-3 rather than PAM-4 signalling, although this is simply something that the likes of AMD and NVIDIA would have to design their GPUs around. Micron doesn't appear to have any plans for GDDR7X at this point in time. The company is also working on several new iterations of HBM memory over the coming years, with the company expecting to hit 2 TB/s sometime in 2026 or later.
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