Unveiling Samsung’s GDDR6W graphics memory: double capacity and performance with increased densities and 64-bit DRAM

Samsung has just unveiled its next generation graphics memory known as GDDR6W which doubles the performance and capacity compared to GDDR6 DRAM.

Unveiling Samsung GDDR6W memory for next-gen graphics solutions: 64-bit I/O, 4GB capacity per DRAM

Press release: As advanced graphics and display technologies develop, they blur the lines between the metaverse and our everyday experience. Much of this significant change is made possible by the advancement of memory solutions designed for graphics products. High-bandwidth graphics memory solution: the key to hyper-real gaming and the digital twin One of the biggest challenges to improving virtual reality is taking the complexities of real-world objects and environments and recreating them in virtual space.

This requires massive memory and increased computing power. At the same time, the benefits of creating a more realistic metaverse will be far-reaching, including real-world simulations of complex scenarios and more, sparking innovation across a number of industries. This is the central idea behind one of the most popular concepts in virtual reality: digital twins. A digital twin is a virtual representation of an object or space. Updated in real time based on the real environment, a digital twin spans the lifecycle of its source and uses simulation, machine learning, and reasoning to aid in decision making.

While until recently this was not a feasible proposition due to limitations in data processing and transfer, digital twins are now gaining momentum with the availability of high bandwidth technologies. Like other technological innovations, the gaming industry thrives on constant innovation, with new speed and performance updates pushing the market forward year after year. Thanks to the development of technologies like Ray Tracing in 3D rendering, which traces the reflection of light in a given scene, the graphics in high-end AAA games are becoming hyper-realistic and increasingly immersive. Ray tracing collects light information to determine the color of each pixel through real-time calculation.

This type of computation requires the near-simultaneous computation of substantial amounts of data – between 60 and 140 one-second-worth pages of a game scene. quickly from 4K standard to 8K standard, while frame buffers expand to double the existing ones in response. That’s why high capacity and bandwidth are essential to meet the growing demand for memory as games continue to grow.

_{Image Buffer: Memory that temporarily stores image information that appears on the screen.} Development of ‘GDDR6W’ graphics memory, with doubled capacity and performance based on state-of-the-art Fan-Out Wafer-Level Packaging (FOWLP) technology High-performance, high-capacity, high-bandwidth memory solutions help bring the virtual world closer to reality. To meet this growing market demand, Samsung Electronics has developed GDDR6W (x64): the industry’s first next-generation graphics DRAM technology. GDDR6W builds on Samsung’s GDDR6 (x32) products by introducing Fan-Out Wafer-Level Packaging (FOWLP) technology, dramatically increasing memory bandwidth and capacity.

Since its launch, GDDR6 has already seen significant improvements. Last July, Samsung developed 24 Gbps GDDR6 memory, the fastest graphics DRAM in the industry. GDDR6W doubles that bandwidth (performance) and capacity while maintaining the same size as GDDR6.

Thanks to the unchanged footprint, the new memory chips can easily be placed in the same production processes that customers used for GDDR6, with the use of FOWLP build and stack technology, reducing time and costs Manufacturing.

As shown in the image below, since it can be equipped with twice as many memory chips in the same size package, the graphics DRAM capacity has increased from 16GB to 32GB, while the bandwidth and the number of I/Os have doubled from 32 to 64 In other words, the area required for memory has been reduced by 50% compared to previous models.

Generally, the size of a package increases as more chips are stacked. But there are physical factors that limit the maximum height of a package. Additionally, although chip stacking increases capacity, there is a trade-off between heat dissipation and performance. In order to overcome these compromises, we applied our FOWLP technology to GDDR6W. FOWLP technology mounts the memory chip directly on a silicon wafer, instead of a PCB. In doing so, RDL (Redistribution Layer) technology is applied, allowing much finer wiring diagrams. Also, since there is no PCB involved, it reduces the thickness of the case and improves heat dissipation.

The height of the FOWLP-based GDDR6W is 0.7mm, which is 36% thinner than the previous case with a height of 1.1mm. And although the chip is multi-layered, it still offers the same thermal properties and performance as existing GDDR6. Unlike GDDR6, however, FOWLP-based GDDR6W’s bandwidth can be doubled thanks to extended I/O per single package. Packaging refers to the process of cutting fabricated wafers into semiconductor shapes or lead wires. In the industry, this is called a “background process”.

While the semiconductor industry has continuously moved towards scaling circuits as much as possible during the front-end process, packaging technology is becoming increasingly important as the industry moves closer to the physical limits of chip size limits. That’s why Samsung uses its 3D IC package technology in GDDR6W, creating a unique package by stacking a variety of chips into a wafer state. This is one of many innovations planned to make advanced conditioning for GDDR6W faster and more efficient.

The newly developed GDDR6W technology can support system-level HBM-level bandwidth. HBM2E has a system-level bandwidth of 1.6 TB/s based on 4K system-level I/O and a transmission rate of 3.2 Gpbs per pin. GDDR6W, on the other hand, can produce a bandwidth of 1.4 TB/s based on 512 system-level I/O and a transmission rate of 22 Gpbs per pin. Also, since GDDR6W reduces the I/O count to about 1/8 compared to using HBM2E, it eliminates the need to use micro bumps. This makes it more cost effective without the need for an interlayer.

	GDDR6W	HBM2E
The number of system-level I/Os	512	4096
Pin baud rate	22 Gbps	3.2Gpbs
System Level Bandwidth	1.4 TB/s	1.6 TB/s

● System level: using graphics cards as an example, set benchmarks of 8 GDDR6W packages and 4 HBM packages. “By applying advanced packaging technology to GDDR6, GDDR6W delivers twice the memory capacity and performance of similarly sized packages,” said Cheol Min Park, Vice President of New Business Planning, Samsung Electronics Memory Business.

With GDDR6W, we are able to promote differentiated memory products that can meet diverse customer needs – a major step towards securing our market leadership. »

Samsung Electronics completed JEDEC standardization for GDDR6W products in the second quarter of this year. It also announced that it will extend the application of GDDR6W to small form factor devices such as laptops as well as new high-performance accelerators used for AI and HPC applications, through cooperation with its GPU partners.