According to TrendForce’s latest memory spot price trend report, neither DRAM nor NAND spot prices show much momentum. Regarding DRAM, spot prices are still falling as Samsung is increasing the amount of reball DDR5 (D1Y) chips that come from decommissioned modules. As for NAND flash, the spot market persists in sluggishness this week, where spot traders are continuously lowering their quotations. Details are as follows:

DRAM Spot Price:

In the spot market, prices are still falling as Samsung is increasing the amount of reball DDR5 (D1Y) chips that come from decommissioned modules. Since these reball chips are second-hand and low-cost products, Samsung can achieve profitability. However, this is leading to a continuous decline in spot prices, thereby affecting confidence across the entire DRAM market and buyers’ sentiment. Most buyers are now cautious and unwilling to actively stock up. The average spot price of the mainstream chips (i.e., DDR4 1Gx8 2666MT/s) decreased by 0.10% from US$1.972 last week to US$1.970 this week.

NAND Flash Spot Price:

The spot market for NAND Flash persists in sluggishness this week, where spot traders are continuously lowering their quotations to alleviate their pressure from inventory, though overall transaction dynamics are maintained at a lackluster level without apparent signs of recovery under unimproved end demand. Spot price of 512Gb TLC wafers dropped by 3.45% this week, arriving at US$3.075.

With the advent of the AI era, customer demand for high-performance NAND solutions such as SSDs for data centers, as well as ultra-fast DRAM chips including high bandwidth memory (HBM), is growing. In line with this trend, SK hynix has introduced a new product, PEB110 E1.S (PEB110), with improved data processing speed and power efficiency by applying the fifth-generation (Gen5) PCIe1 specifications.

It is worth noting that the new product builds on the company’s best-in-class 238-high 4D NAND, boasting the most competitive standards in the industry in terms of cost, performance and quality, according to Ahn Hyun, Head of the N-S Committee at SK hynix.

According to its press release, SK hynix is currently in the qualification process with a global data center customer, aiming to start mass production of the product in the second quarter of next year.

In its roadmap, the memory giant expects to meet diverse customer needs with a more robust SSD portfolio. Following the successful mass production of PS10102, it now introduces PEB110 E1.S (PEB110), a high-performance solid-state drive (SSD) for data centers.

According to SK hynix, PCle Gen5, which is applied to the new product, provides twice the bandwidth of the fourth generation (Gen4), enabling PEB110 to achieve data transfer rates of up to 32 gigatransfers per second (GT/s). This enables PEB110 to double the performance of the previous generation and improve power efficiency by more than 30%.

SK hynix has also applied the security protocol and data model technology, or SPDM, to PEB110, for the first time for its data-center SSDs to significantly enhance information security features.

SK hynix notes that the product will be released in three capacity versions—2 terabyte (TB), 4 TB, and 8 TB—and supports the OCP3 version 2.5 specifications for greater compatibility across global data centers.

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(Photo credit: SK hynix)

Recently, China has set two records in semiconductor chip sector: first, it mass-produced the world’s first 28nm embedded RRAM image quality adjustment chip; second, it developed the world’s first 16-bit quantum bit semiconductor microprocessor chip.

• Mass Production of the World’s First 28nm Embedded RRAM Image Quality Adjustment Chip

As per the official account of “Beijing Yizhuang,” the world’s first 28nm embedded RRAM (Resistive Random Access Memory) image quality adjustment chip, developed by Chinese semiconductor company Xianxin Technology in collaboration with domestic research institutes, has achieved mass production in Beijing and has been successfully applied in the high-end series of Mini LED televisions of leading brands in China.

It is reported that this 28nm display chip adopts the “digital chip + embedded RRAM” technology solution. Compared with the mainstream counterpart in the industry, which uses the “TCON + external FLASH memory,”  this chip effectively addresses issues like the high cost of external memory devices and the slow read speed of compensation parameters.

Furthermore, the chip integrates RRAM IP directly on the 28nm process node, enabling lower cost, smaller size, and higher efficiency.

Data shows that this mass-produced 28nm embedded RRAM image quality adjustment chip is not only the first domestically developed 28nm display chip in China but also the world’s first advanced commercial image quality adjustment chip to use 28nm embedded RRAM IP.

It possesses fully independent intellectual property rights. Its built-in RRAM memory module and core RRAM IP technology are derived from the transformation of research institute results, and the image quality adjustment algorithm is independently developed by Xianxin Technology.

• HKPU Develops a 16-bit Quantum Bit Semiconductor Microprocessor Chip

Recently, a research team from Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU) successfully developed the world’s first 16-bit quantum bit semiconductor microprocessor chip, providing a novel solution for simulating large and complex molecular spectra.

HKPU explained that the team used a linear photonic network and compressed vacuum quantum light source to simulate molecular vibration spectra. This 16-bit quantum microprocessor chip is manufactured and integrated on a single chip.

In addition, the research team also developed a complete system, including optoelectronic thermal packaging for the quantum photonic microprocessor chip and control module, driver software and user interface, as well as programmable underlying quantum algorithms. The developed quantum computing system can be applied to different computational models.

The quantum microprocessor can be used to handle complex tasks, such as faster and more accurate simulations of large protein structures or optimizing molecular reactions.

Dr. Zhu Huihui, a postdoctoral researcher and the first author of the research paper, stated that this method can break through traditional limitations, enabling early practical molecular simulations and potentially achieving quantum acceleration in related quantum chemistry applications.

It is reported that, in addition to HKPU, other collaborative institutions include Nanyang Technological University, City University of Hong Kong, Beijing Institute of Technology, Southern University of Science and Technology, Institute of Microelectronics (IME), and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

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(Photo credit: Xianxin Technology)

As silicon photonics has become a key technology in the AI era, semiconductor giants, including Intel and TSMC, have joined the battlefield. Now another tech giant has engaged in the war, while U.S. chip giant AMD is reportedly seeking silicon photonics partners in Taiwan, according to local media United Daily News.

According to the report, AMD has reached out to Taiwanese rising stars in the sector, including BE Epitaxy Semiconductor and best Epitaxy Manufacturing Company. The former focuses on the design, research and development of silicon photonics platforms, while the latter possesses MOCVD machines to produce 4-inch and 6-inch epitaxy wafers.

Regarding the rumor, AMD declined to comment. Recently, the AI chip giant announced a USD 4.9 billion acquisition of server manufacturer ZT Systems to strengthen its AI data center infrastructure, with the aim to further enhance its system-level R&D capability. Now it seems that AMD is also eyeing to set foot in the market, as silicon photonics is poised to be a critical technology in the future.

Earlier in July, AMD is said to establish a research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan, which will focus on several advanced technologies, including silicon photonics, artificial intelligence (AI), and heterogeneous integration.

Here’s why the technology matters: As chipmakers keep pushing the boundaries of Moore’s Law, leading to increased transistor density per unit area, signal loss issues inevitably arise during transmission since chips rely on electricity to transmit signals. Silicon photonics technology, on the other hand, by replacing electrical signals with optical signals for high-speed data transmission, successfully overcomes this challenge, achieving higher bandwidth and faster data processing.

On September 3, a consortium of more than 30 companies, including TSMC, announced the establishment of the Silicon Photonics Industry Alliance (SiPhIA) at SEMICON.

According to a previous report by Nikkei, TSMC and its supply chain are accelerating the development of next-generation silicon photonic solutions, with plans to have the technology ready for production within the next three to five years.

AMD’s major rival, NVIDIA, is reportedly collaborating with TSMC to develop optical channel and IC interconnect technologies.

On the other hand, Intel has been developing silicon photonics technology for over 30 years. Since the launch of its silicon photonics platform in 2016, Intel has shipped over 8 million photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and more than 3.2 million integrated on-chip lasers, according to its press release. These products have been adopted by numerous large-scale cloud service providers.

Interestingly enough, Intel has also been actively collaborating with Taiwanese companies in the development of silicon photonics, United Daily News notes. One of its most notable partners is LandMark Optoelectronics, which supplies Intel with critical upstream silicon photonics materials, such as epitaxial layers and related components.

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(Photo credit: AMD)

According to a report from tom’s Hardware, Jack Huynh, AMD’s senior vice president and general manager of its Computing and Graphics Business Group, announced at IFA 2024 in Berlin that AMD will unify its consumer microarchitecture “RDNA” and data center microarchitecture “CDNA” under a single name: “UDNA.” This move is expected to compete with NVIDIA’s CUDA ecosystem.

Previously, AMD used the same architecture for both gaming and compute GPUs, known as “GCN.” However, since 2019, the company decided to split the microarchitectures into two distinct designs: RDNA for consumer gaming GPUs and CDNA for data center computing.

Reportedly, Jack Huynh stated that the consolidation into the unified “UDNA” architecture will make it easier for developers to work with, eliminating the need to choose between different architectures without added value.

When asked if future desktop GPUs will have the same architecture as the MI300X, Huynh mentioned that this is part of a strategy to unify from cloud to client. With a single team working on it, the company is making efforts to standardize, acknowledging that while there may be minor conflicts, it is the right approach.

While high-end chips can establish a market presence, the report from tom’s hardware further addressed that the ultimate success depends on software support. NVIDIA built a strong moat 18 years ago with its CUDA architecture, and one of its fundamental advantages is the “U” in CUDA, which stands for Unified.

NVIDIA’s single CUDA platform serves all purposes, using the same underlying microarchitecture for AI, HPC, and gaming.

Jack Huynh revealed that CUDA has around 4 million developers, and his goal is to pave the way for AMD to achieve similar success.

However, AMD relies on the open-source ROCm software stack, which depends on support from users and the open-source community. If AMD can simplify this process, even if it means optimizing for specific applications or games, it will help accelerate the ecosystem.

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(Photo credit: AMD)