- SanDisk unveils Excessive Bandwidth Flash (HBF), a NAND-based different to HBM
- HBF matches HBM bandwidth, providing 8–16x capability at a decrease value
- SanDisk is planning to ascertain a technical advisory board of trade specialists
It definitely appears as if splitting from Western Digital has lit a fireplace below Sandisk. At its latest buyers day, the flash reminiscence specialist look the wraps off tremendous giant SSDs, with the promise of even bigger ones to return, and unveiled a brand new, cheaper DRAM different referred to as 3D Reminiscence Matrix.
On the identical occasion, Sandisk additionally unveiled its Excessive Bandwidth Flash (HBF) idea which is taking goal at HBM by augmenting it with NAND flash to cater to AI inference workloads. Sandisk’s key aims with HBF appears to be to match HBM bandwidth whereas offering 8–16 occasions the capability at an analogous value.
In keeping with a slide that Sandisk shared, HBF combines BiCS know-how with CBA wafer bonding, permitting for environment friendly high-density stacking. The corporate has developed a proprietary stacking know-how that reportedly delivers ultra-low die warpage, making it doable to attain 16-die stacking with out main structural points.
Scaling as much as 4TB
The structure of HBF has been developed over the previous 12 months, with Sandisk incorporating enter from “main AI gamers” (it doesn’t identify names, sadly).
The diagram within the slide exhibits an HBF stack, which consists of a number of HBF core dies linked through TSV (By-Silicon Through) and micro bumps, interfacing with a logic die and PHY, which then connects to a GPU, CPU, TPU, or SoC die. Your entire stack sits on an interposer atop a bundle substrate, just like the packaging design utilized in HBM.
HBF isn’t a straight drop-in substitute for HBM, however it does share the identical electrical interface, so will solely require minor protocol changes, in keeping with Sandisk.
In one other slide, a GPU with HBM offering 192GB of whole reminiscence, is in contrast with an alternate model combining HBF and HBM that will increase the reminiscence capability to 3TB. A completely optimized setup with solely HBF (which you’ll see on the high of the web page) can scale as much as a powerful 4TB.
Sandisk’s HBF roadmap (under) exhibits how the corporate sees the know-how advancing throughout a number of generations, specializing in capability, learn bandwidth, and vitality effectivity. Within the first technology, HBF establishes a baseline for these metrics. By the second technology, capability is predicted to extend by 1.5x, whereas learn bandwidth sees a 1.45x enchancment, and vitality effectivity barely decreases to 0.8x. By the third technology (there is not any indication of when Sandisk expects to reach at this level), HBF is projected to double in capability and skim bandwidth in comparison with its preliminary model, with vitality effectivity dropping additional to 0.64x.
HBF is prone to obtain some push again from rivals like Samsung and SK Hynix who’re closely invested within the $100 billion HBM market. Painfully conscious of this, Sandisk is trying to set up an open customary ecosystem, and in addition a technical advisory board made up of trade specialists and key companions.
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