SK hynix’s booth at SC24

Returning for its second year, SK hynix is underlining its AI memory leadership through a display of innovative memory products and insightful presentations on AI and HPC technologies. In line with the conference’s “HPC Creates” theme which underscores the impact of supercomputing across various industries, the company is showing how its memory solutions drive progress in diverse fields.

Showcasing Advanced Memory Solutions for AI & HPC

At the booth, SK hynix is demonstrating and displaying a range of groundbreaking products tailored for AI and HPC. The products being demonstrated include its CMM (CXL^®1 Memory Module)-DDR5²,  AiMX³ accelerator card, and Niagara 2.0 among others.

¹Compute Express Link^® (CXL^®): A PCIe-based next-generation interconnect protocol on which high-performance computing systems are based.
²CXL Memory Module-DDR5 (CMM-DDR5): A next-generation DDR5 memory module utilizing CXL technology to boost bandwidth and performance for AI, cloud, and high-performance computing.
³Accelerator-in-Memory Based Accelerator (AiMX): SK hynix’s specialized accelerator card tailored for large language model processing using GDDR6-AiM chips.

Live demonstrations of CMM-DDR5 and AiMX at the booth

The live demonstration of CMM-DDR5 with a server platform featuring Intel^® Xeon^® 6 processors shows how CXL^® memory technology accelerates AI workloads under various usage models. Moreover, visitors to the booth can learn about the latest CMM-DDR5 product with EDSFF⁴ which offers improvements in TCO⁵ and performance. Another live demonstration features AiMX integrated in an ASRock Rack Server to run Meta’s Llama 3 70B, a large language model (LLM) with 70 billion parameters. This demonstration highlights AiMX’s efficiency in processing large datasets while achieving high performance and low power consumption, addressing the computational load challenges posed by attention layers⁶ in LLMs.

⁴Enterprise and Data Center Standard Form Factor (EDSFF): A collection of SSD form factors specifically used for data center servers.
⁵Total cost of ownership (TCO): The complete cost of acquiring, operating, and maintaining an asset, including purchase, energy, and maintenance expenses.
⁶Attention layer: A mechanism that enables a model to assess the relevance of input data, prioritizing more important information for processing.

SK hynix’s Niagara 2.0, customized HBM, OCS, and SSD products

Among the other technologies being demonstrated is Niagara 2.0. The CXL pooled memory solution enables data sharing to minimize GPU memory shortages during AI inference⁷, making it ideal for LLM models. The company is also demonstrating an HBM with near-memory processing (NMP)⁸ which accelerates indirect memory access⁹, a frequent occurrence in HPC. Developed with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the solution highlights the potential of NMP-enabled HBM to advance next-generation technologies.

Another demonstration is showcasing SK hynix’s updated OCS¹⁰ solution, which offers significant improvements in analytical performance for real-world HPC workloads compared to the iteration displayed at SC23. Co-developed with LANL, OCS addresses performance issues in traditional HPC systems by enabling storage to independently analyze data, reducing unnecessary data movement and improving resource efficiency. Additionally, the company is demonstrating a checkpoint offloading SSD¹¹ prototype that improves LLM training resource utilization by enhancing performance and scalability.

⁷AI inference: The process of using a trained AI model to analyze live data for predictions or task completions.
⁸Near-memory processing (NMP): A technique that performs computations near data storage, reducing latency and boosting performance in high-bandwidth tasks like AI and HPC.
⁹Indirect memory access: A computing addressing method in which an instruction providing the address of a memory location that contains the actual address of the desired data or instruction.
¹⁰Object-based computational storage (OCS): A storage architecture that integrates computation within the storage system, enabling local data processing and minimizing movement to enhance analytical efficiency.
¹¹Checkpoint offloading SSD: A storage solution that stores intermediate data during AI training, improving efficiency and reducing training time.

SK hynix presented various data center solutions, including HBM3E, DDR5, and eSSD products

In addition to running product demonstrations, SK hynix is also displaying a robust lineup of data center solutions, including its industry-leading HBM3E¹². The fifth-generation HBM provides high-speed data processing, optimal heat dissipation, and high capacity, making it essential for AI applications. Alongside HBM3E are the company’s rapid DDR5 RDIMM and MCR DIMM products, which are tailored for AI computing in high-performance servers. Enterprise SSDs (eSSDs) including the Gen 5 PS1010 and PEB110 are also on display. Offering ultra-fast read/write speeds, these SSD solutions are vital for accelerating AI training and inference in large-scale environments.

¹²HBM3E: The fifth-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), a high-value, high-performance product that revolutionizes data processing speeds by connecting multiple DRAM chips with through-silicon via (TSV).

Highlighting the Potential of Memory Through Expert Presentations

During the conference, Jongryool Kim, research director of AI System Infra, presented on “Memory & Storage: The Power of HPC/AI,” highlighting the memory needs for HPC and AI systems. He focused on two key advancements including near-data processing technology using CXL, HBM, and SSDs to improve performance, and CXL pooled memory for better data sharing across systems.

(From first image) Research Director Jongryool Kim presenting on advancements in memory and storage for HPC and AI systems; Technical Leader Jeoungahn Park delivering a presentation on OCS

Technical Leader Jeoungahn Park of the Sustainable Computing team also took to the stage for his talk on “Leveraging Open Standardized OCS to Boost HPC Data Analytics.” Park explained how OCS enables storage to automatically recognize and analyze data, thereby accelerating data analysis in HPC. He added how OCS enhances resource efficiency and integrates seamlessly with existing analytics systems, as well as how its analysis performance has been verified in real-world HPC applications.

At SC24, SK hynix is solidifying its status as a pioneer in memory solutions which are driving innovations in AI and HPC technologies. Looking ahead, the company will continue to push technological boundaries with support from its partners to shape the future of AI and HPC.

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A glimpse of SK hynix’s booth at the AI Hardware & Edge AI Summit 2024

SK hynix unveiled an enhanced Accelerator-in-Memory based Accelerator (AiMX) card at the AI Hardware & Edge AI Summit 2024 held September 9–12 in San Jose, California. Organized annually by Kisaco Research, the summit brings together representatives from the AI and machine learning ecosystem to share industry breakthroughs and developments. This year’s event focused on exploring cost and energy efficiency across the entire technology stack.

Marking its fourth appearance at the summit, SK hynix highlighted how its AiM¹ products can boost AI performance across data centers and edge devices².

¹Accelerator in Memory (AiM): SK hynix’s PIM semiconductor product name, which includes GDDR6-AiM.
²Edge device: Hardware that controls the flow of data at the boundary between two networks. While they fulfill numerous roles, edge devices essentially serve as the entry or exit point to a network.

Attendees gather to learn more about the upgraded AimX card

Booth Highlights: Meet the Upgraded AiMX

In the AI era, high-performance memory products are vital for the smooth operation of LLMs³. However, as these LLMs are trained on increasingly larger datasets and continue to expand, there is a growing need for more efficient solutions. SK hynix addresses this demand with its PIM⁴ product AiMX, an AI accelerator card that combines multiple GDDR6-AiMs to provide high bandwidth and outstanding energy efficiency.

³Large language model (LLM): Advanced AI systems that require extensive datasets to train models to understand and generate human-like language. It enables applications like natural language processing and translation.
⁴Processing-In-Memory (PIM): A next-generation technology that embeds processing capabilities within memory, minimizing data transfer between the processor and memory. This boosts efficiency and speed, especially for data-intensive tasks like LLMs, where quick data access and processing are essential.

The 32 GB AiMX prototype card was shown publicly for the first time at the event

At the AI Hardware & Edge AI Summit 2024, SK hynix presented its updated 32 GB AiMX prototype which offers double the capacity of the original card featured at last year’s event. To highlight the new AiMX’s advanced processing capabilities in a multi-batch⁵ environment, SK hynix held a demonstration of the prototype card with the Llama 3⁶ 70B model, an open source LLM. In particular, the demonstration underlined AiMX’s ability to serve as a highly effective attention⁷ accelerator in data centers.

⁵Multi-batch: A computer processing method in which the system groups together multiple tasks (batches) and processes them at once.
⁶Llama 3: An open source LLM developed by Meta, featuring pretrained and instruction-fine-tuned language models.
⁷Attention: Mechanisms which give LLMs context about text, lessening the model’s chance of misunderstandings and allowing it to generate more accurate and contextually relevant outputs.

The upgraded AiMX was demonstrated with the Llama 3 70B model LLM to highlight its processing capabilities

AiMX addresses the cost, performance, and power consumption challenges associated with LLMs in not only data centers, but also in edge devices and on-device AI applications. For example, when applied to mobile on-device AI applications, AiMX improves LLM speed three-fold compared to mobile DRAM while maintaining the same power consumption.

Featured Presentation: Accelerating LLM Services from Data Centers to Edge Devices​

Euicheol Lim presenting on how the AiMX system accelerates LLM services

On the final day of the summit, SK hynix gave a presentation detailing how AiMX is an optimal solution for accelerating LLM services in data centers and edge devices. Euicheol Lim, research fellow and head of the Solution Advanced Technology team, shared the company’s plans to develop AiM products for on-device AI based on mobile DRAM and revealed the future vision for AiM. In closing, Lim emphasized the importance of close collaboration with companies involved in developing and managing data centers and edge systems to further advance AiMX products.

Looking Ahead: SK hynix’s Vision for AiMX in the AI Era

The AI Hardware & Edge AI Summit 2024 provided a platform for SK hynix to demonstrate AiMX’s applications in LLMs across data centers and edge devices. As a low-power, high-speed memory solution able to handle large amounts of data, AiMX is set to play a key role in the advancement of LLMs and AI applications.

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• SK hynix to highlight role of memory chips in AI era
• Ultra-high performance of HBM3E, interactive AI fortuneteller to be displayed
• Company to solidify AI memory leadership, seek acceleration of business turnaround

Seoul, January 3, 2024

SK hynix Inc. (or “the company”, www.skhynix.com) announced today that it will showcase the technology for ultra-high performance memory products, the core of future AI infrastructure, at CES 2024, the most influential tech event in the world taking place from January 9 through 12 in Las Vegas.

SK hynix said that it will highlight its future vision represented by its Memory Centric¹ at the show and promote the importance of memory products accelerating the technological innovation in the AI era and its competitiveness in the global memory markets.

¹Memory Centric: An SK hynix vision where memory products play a pivotal role in ICT devices

The company will run a space titled SK Wonderland jointly with other major SK Group affiliates including SK Inc., SK Innovation and SK Telecom, and showcase its major AI memory products including HBM3E.

SK hynix plans to provide HBM3E, the world’s best-performing memory product that it successfully developed in August, to the world’s largest AI technology companies by starting mass production from the first half of 2024.

At SK Group’s space with an amusement-park theme, SK hynix will display an AI Fortuneteller where the generative AI technology based on HBM3E is applied. The AI fortuneteller is expected to give visitors fresh fun by creating an image of their cartoon characters based on their own faces and reading New Year fortunes.

SK hynix’s leading AI technology will also be displayed at the SK ICT Family Demo Room jointly run by other SK ICT companies. The company will showcase Compute Express Link (CXL²), next-generation interface, a test product of Computational Memory Solution (CMS), memory solution that integrates the computational functions of CXL, and Accelerator-in-Memory based Accelerator (AiMX³), a processing-in-memory chip-based accelerator card with low-cost and high-efficiency for generative AI.

²CXL (Compute Express Link): a PCIe-based next-generation interconnect protocol, on which high-performance computing systems are based
³AiMX (Accelerator-in-Memory based Accelerator): SK hynix’s accelerator card product that specializes in large language models using GDDR6-AiM chips

Particularly, CXL memory, along with HBM, is one of the core products in the limelight with the rise of AI technology. SK hynix plans to commercialize 96GB and 128GB CXL 2.0 memory solutions based on DDR5 in the second half for shipments to AI customers.

“We are thrilled to showcase our technology, which has risen to the core of the AI infrastructure in the U.S., home to AI technology,” said Justin Kim, President (Head of AI Infra) at SK hynix. “SK hynix will step up its efforts for collaboration with global players, while seeking to accelerate a turnaround in business with its leadership in the AI memory space.”

Disclaimer

These materials are not an offer for sale of the securities of SK hynix Inc. in the United States. The securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended. SK hynix Inc. does not intend to register any offering in the United States or to conduct a public offering of securities in the United States.

About SK hynix Inc.

SK hynix Inc., headquartered in Korea, is the world’s top tier semiconductor supplier offering Dynamic Random Access Memory chips (“DRAM”), flash memory chips (“NAND flash”) and CMOS Image Sensors (“CIS”) for a wide range of distinguished customers globally. The Company’s shares are traded on the Korea Exchange, and the Global Depository shares are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Further information about SK hynix is available at www.skhynix.com, news.skhynix.com.

Media Contact

SK hynix Inc.
Global Public Relations

Technical Leader
Sooyeon Lee
E-Mail: global_newsroom@skhynix.com

Technical Leader
Kanga Kong
E-Mail: global_newsroom@skhynix.com

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Figure 1 . SK hynix’s exhibition booth at SC23

Displaying Advanced HPC & AI Products

At SC23, SK hynix showcased its products tailored for AI and HPC to underline its leadership in the AI memory field. Among these next-generation products, HBM3E attracted attention as the HBM¹ solution meets the industry’s highest standards of speed, capacity, heat dissipation, and power efficiency. These capabilities make it particularly suitable for data-intensive AI server systems. HBM3E was presented alongside NVIDIA’s H100, a high-performance GPU for AI that uses HBM3 for its memory.

¹High Bandwidth Memory (HBM): A high-value, high-performance product that possesses much higher data processing speeds compared to existing DRAMs by vertically connecting multiple DRAMs with through-silicon via (TSV).

Figure 2. HBM3E, an HBM solution applicable to data-intensive AI server systems

SK hynix also held a demonstration of AiMX², the company’s generative AI accelerator³ card which specializes in large language models (LLM) using GDDR6-AiM chips that leverage PIM⁴ technology. This product is set to play a key role in the advancement of data-intensive generative AI inference systems as it significantly reduces the AI inference time of server systems compared to systems with GPUs, while also offering lower power consumption.

²Accelerator-in-Memory Based Accelerator (AiMX): SK hynix’s accelerator card product that specializes in large language models (AI that learns with large amounts of text data such as ChatGPT) using GDDR6-AiM chips.
³Accelerator: A special-purpose hardware device that uses a chip designed specifically for processing and computing information.
⁴Processing-In-Memory (PIM): A next-generation technology that adds computational capabilities to semiconductor memories to solve the problem of data movement congestion in AI and big data processing.

Figure 3. SK hynix’s booth providing a demonstration of AiMX, an AI accelerator card

CXL⁵ was another highlight at SK hynix’s booth. Based on PCle⁶, CXL is a standardized interface that helps increase the efficiency of HPC systems. Offering flexible memory expansion, CXL is a promising interface for HPC systems such as AI and big data-related applications. In particular, SK hynix’s Niagara CXL disaggregated memory prototype platform was showcased as a pooled memory solution that can improve system performance in AI and big data distributed processing systems.

⁵Compute Express Link (CXL): A PCIe-based next-generation interconnect protocol on which high-performance computing systems are based.
⁶Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe): A high-speed input/output series interface used in the mainboard of digital devices. PCIe’s data-transfer speed doubles in accordance with a generation shift.

Figure 4. SK hynix’s CXL pooled memory solution, Niagara, and CXL-based computational memory solution (CMS)

Additionally, SK hynix was able to present the results of its collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to improve the performance and reduce the energy requirements of applications that utilize HPC physics. Called CXL-based computational memory solution (CMS)⁷, the product has the capability to accelerate indirect memory accesses while also significantly reducing data movement. Such technological enhancements are also applicable to various memory-intensive domains such as AI and graph analytics.

⁷Computational Memory Solution (CMS):  A memory solution that offers the functions of machine learning and data filtering, which are frequently performed by big data analytics applications. Just like CXL, CMS’s memory capacity is highly scalable.

Lastly, object-based computational storage (OCS) was shown as part of SK hynix’s efforts to develop an analytics ecosystem with multiple partners. It minimizes data movement between analytics application systems and storage, reduces storage software stack weight, and accelerates data analysis speed. And through a demonstration, the company showed how its interface technology enhances data processing capabilities in OCS.

Figure 5. Object-based computational storage (OCS) was developed as part of SK hynix’s efforts to form an analytics ecosystem

Innovative Data Center & eSSD Solutions

Figure 6. A presentation of data center solutions including MCR DIMM, PS1010, and PS1030

SK hynix also displayed a range of its data center solutions at the conference, including its DDR5 Registered Dual In-line Memory Module (RDIMM). Equipped with 1bnm, the fifth generation of the 10nm process technology, DDR5 RDIMM reaches speeds of up to 6,400 megabits per second (Mbps). The display also featured DDR5 Multiplexer Combined Ranks (MCR) DIMM, which reaches speeds of up to 8,800 Mbps. With such rapid speeds, these DDR5 solutions are suited for AI computing in high-performance servers.

Visitors to the SK hynix booth could also see its latest enterprise SSD (eSSD) products, including the PCle Gen5-based PS1010 E3.S and PS1030. In particular, the PS1030 delivers the industry’s fastest sequential read speed of 14,800 megabytes per second (MBps) which makes it ideal for big data and machine learning.

Sharing the Potential of SK hynix’s Memory Solutions

Figure 7. Technical Leader Yongkee Kwon presents about LLM inference solution using SK hynix’s AiM

During the conference, SK hynix employees also held presentations on the application of the company’s memory solutions for AI and HPC. On the fourth day of the conference, Technical Leader of PIM Hardware in Solution Advanced Technology Division Yongkee Kwon held a talk titled “Cost-Effective Large Language Model (LLM) Inference Solution Using SK hynix’s AiM.” Kwon revealed how SK hynix’s AiM, a PIM device that is specialized for LLMs, can significantly improve the performance and energy efficiency of LLM inference. When applied to Meta’s Open Pre-trained Transformers (OPT) language model, an open-source alternative to Open AI’s GPT-3, AiM can reach speeds up to ten times higher than state-of-the-art GPU systems while also offering lower costs and energy consumption.

Figure 8. Technical Leader Hokyoon Lee talks about the innovative solutions offered by SK hynix’s CXL solution, Niagara

On the same day, Technical Leader of System Software in Memory Forest x&D Hokyoon Lee held a presentation titled “CXL-based Memory Disaggregation for HPC and AI Workloads.” SK hynix’s Niagara addresses the issue of stranded memory—or unused memory in each server that can never be utilized by other servers—with its elastic memory⁸ feature. Additionally, Niagara’s memory sharing feature provides a solution to heavy network traffic in conventional distributed computing. In the session, the presenters demonstrated the effectiveness of memory sharing during a real simulation with the Ray distributed AI framework which is used in ChatGPT.

⁸Elastic memory: A type of memory with capacity that can be adjusted as required by servers when multiple hosts share memory, such as pooled memory.

A day later, Director and Technical Leader of SOLAB in Memory Forest x&D Jongryool Kim presented on “Accelerating Data Analytics Using Object Based Computational Storage in an HPC.” By introducing SK hynix’s collaboration with LANL in researching computational storage technologies, Kim proposed object-based computational storage (OCS) as a new computational storage platform for data analytics in HPC. Due to its high scalability and data-aware characteristics, OCS can perform analytics independently without help from compute nodes—highlighting its potential as the future of computational storage in HPC.

Similarly, SK hynix will continue to develop solutions that enable the advancement of AI and HPC as a globally leading AI memory provider.

Figure 9. Technical Leader Jongryool Kim explains how SK hynix participated in collective research into computational storage technologies

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• SK hynix attended SEDEX 2023 as a leader in AI memory
• Commemorating its 40^th anniversary, SK hynix showcased its history and tenacity
• Company’s display of next-gen AI solutions such as HBM3E and AiMX attracted the crowds

SK hynix participated in Semiconductor Exhibition (SEDEX) 2023 at Seoul’s COEX from October 25–27 to showcase its advanced memory products and technologies which are leading the AI era.

Hosted by the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association (KSIA), SEDEX is the country’s largest semiconductor exhibition which brings together all areas of the industry including companies that produce semiconductor materials, components, and equipment. For this 25^th SEDEX, a record 320 companies, organizations, and schools participated under the theme of “AI, Semiconductor Innovation, and the Power to Connect the Future”.

Figure 1. Visitors at SK hynix’s booth discovering the company’s technologies and products

To commemorate its 40^th anniversary, SK hynix presented its products under the theme “After 40 Years of Tenacious Commitment, Becoming the Global No.1 AI Memory Solution Provider.” The booth was separated into six zones that showcased its next-generation memory solutions for AI, server products, brand SSDs, SAPEON¹ AI chip, CMOS image sensors (CIS)², and sustainable social value (SV) initiatives, respectively. In addition, a digital wall featuring a timeline of the company’s past highlighted significant moments from its 40-year history.

¹SAPEON: An AI startup jointly founded by SK hynix, SK Telecom, and SK Square. The company has developed the SAPEON AI processor for data centers which offers rapid deep learning computation speed and low-power consumption.

²CMOS Image Sensor (CIS): A sensor that converts the color and intensity of light into electrical signals and passes them on to a processing unit. Serves as the “eyes” of digital devices such as smartphones, tablets, etc.

Figure 2. SK hynix’s President and CEO Kwak Noh-Jung (front, center) visits the company’s booth during SEDEX 2023

SK hynix President and CEO Kwak Noh-Jung, who is also the president of KSIA, took a tour of 18 exhibition spaces including SK hynix’s booth, and showed his support for the development of the country’s semiconductor industry.

SK hynix’s newsroom also visited the company’s booth to take a closer look at the advanced memory products and AI solution on display, as well as its SV creation activities.

SK hynix’s Stellar Moments Presented on Its History Wall

Amidst SK hynix’s six zones that displayed its products, technologies, and sustainability management, the center of the booth featured a digital history wall. Commemorating the company’s 40^th anniversary, the wall highlighted key moments from the company’s establishment in 1983 to today.

Those key milestones include: the production of South Korea’s first 16K SRAM in 1984; the launch of the Blue Chip project in 2001 that modernized manufacturing processes with minimal expenditure; the launch of the rebranded SK hynix in 2012; record operating profits in 2018; and the start of construction on the Yongin semiconductor cluster in 2022.

Figure 3. The “40th Anniversary Wall” zone showcasing SK hynix’s major achievements

The wall also provided a glimpse into SK hynix’s vision of the Icheon-Cheongju-Yongin fab triangle. With the Yongin cluster planned to become operational in 2027, the company plans to optimize its production, increase its business efficiency, and transform South Korea into a global semiconductor mecca.

Showcasing Globally Leading AI Memory Technologies

With the emergence of generative AI services such as ChatGPT, semiconductor memory companies are rushing to develop AI technologies and services to meet the unprecedented demand for AI solutions. As such, SK hynix introduced two AI memory products based on HBM³ and AiM⁴ in the “Global No.1 AI Memory” zone.

³High Bandwidth Memory (HBM): A high-value, high-performance product that possesses much higher data processing speeds compared to existing DRAMs by vertically connecting multiple DRAMs with through-silicon via (TSV).

⁴Accelerator in Memory (AiM): SK hynix’s PIM semiconductor product name, which includes GDDR6-AiM.

HBM3E boasts industry-leading data processing speeds of 1.15 terabytes (TB) per second and is optimized to process large amounts of data for applications such as AI computing. At the booth, a video showing its improvements over its predecessor was played alongside a product sample.

AiMX accelerates AI processing by adding computational capabilities to memory products. Consequently, it has the ability to run large-scale language models at high speed and low power. Visitors to the booth were able to see prototypes of both the PIM⁵-based GDDR6-AiM and the AiMX cards which incorporate GDDR6-AiM.

⁵Processing-In-Memory (PIM): A next-generation technology that adds computational capabilities to semiconductor memories to solve the problem of data movement congestion in AI and big data processing.

Figure 4. Visitors viewing various SK hynix products such as HBM3E and AiMX at the “Global No.1 AI Memory” zone

In the “Server Solution” zone, the company showcased DDR5 for servers and eSSD products. Optimized for improving AI performance, the products meet the server industry’s need for low-power, high-performance DRAMs, as well as the IT industry’s requirements for mass storage.

Other products such as the DDR5 chip that supports AI computing in high-performance servers were also on display. Crowd favorites included DDR5 RDIMM which features the 5th generation of the 10nm process technology and boasts speeds of more than 6,400 megabits per second (Mbps), and MCR DIMM which reaches speeds of more than 8 gigabits per second (Gbps).

Three types of eSSD were also displayed: the PCle (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) Gen5-based PS1010 E3.S, PS1010 U.2 15mm, and PE9110 E1.S. These storage products attracted attention for their enhanced speed and durability that are optimal for big data and machine learning.

Figure 5. Visitors looking at DDR5, MCR DIMM, and eSSD products at the “Server Solution” zone

Exotic Beetle X31 Display and SV Activities Draw the Crowds

Beetle X31, a consumer SSD in the shape of an Egyptian scarab beetle, received positive reviews for its distinct design and its ability to maintain high performance levels while effectively dissipating heat. This “Brand SSD” zone was distinguishable from other exhibition spaces as it featured Egyptian hieroglyphics and art to highlight the exotic design of Beetle X31.

Figure 6. The Beetle X31 on display against an ancient Egyptian backdrop

In the “SAPEON” zone, samples of the SAPEON X220 AI chip were on display along with 5011Q, a CIS product that captures more light with large 1.0 micrometer (μm)-sized pixels. Unlike the conventional method of achieving high resolution by reducing the pixel size, 5011Q captures more light in large pixels to improve the image quality. At SEDEX 2023, SK hynix unveiled a mass-produced version of 5011Q for the first time.

Figure 7. Visitors viewing the latest semiconductor products including the SAPEON X220 AI chip and 5011Q CIS

In the “Social Value” zone, SK hynix presented its ESG activities and achievements that included its ongoing Eco Alliance⁶ operations, energy-efficient manufacturing, and water management practices. The zone also highlighted programs that contributed to SV creation and talent development. These included Hy-Five, which connects partnering companies with young jobseekers, and Hy-Po, which provides semiconductor internships to university students.

⁶Eco Alliance: An environmental union of semiconductor companies led by SK hynix and comprising leading semiconductor technology partner and member companies.

Figure 8. Visitors learning about SK hynix’s various ESG management activities at the “Social Value” zone

Meanwhile, SK hynix also organized fun activities for visitors. A quiz about the company and a semiconductor-themed pinball machine attracted crowds to the booth.

Figure 9. Visitors enjoying various events and games at SK hynix’s booth

Continuing a History of Innovation to Lead the AI Era

At SEDEX 2023, SK hynix showcased its 40-year history featuring a string of technological breakthroughs alongside its latest memory solutions. Having been a pioneer of the memory industry for decades, the company will continue this tradition of innovation as it looks set to lead the AI era for years to come.

The post Global No.1 AI Memory Solution Provider SK hynix Showcases Its 40-Year History & Road Ahead at SEDEX 2023 first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

¹Accelerator-in-Memory based Accelerator (AiMX): SK hynix’s accelerator card product that specializes in large language models (AI that learns with large amounts of text data such as ChatGPT) using GDDR6-AiM chips.

²Accelerator: A special-purpose hardware device that uses a chip designed specifically for processing and computing information.

Figure 1. SK hynix’s exhibition booth at the AI Hardware & Edge AI Summit 2023

Hosted annually by the UK marketing firm Kisaco Research, the AI Hardware & Edge AI Summit brings together global IT companies and high-profile startups to share their developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning. This is SK hynix’s third time participating in the summit.

At the event, the company showcased the prototype of AiMX, an accelerator card that combines multiple GDDR6-AiMs to further enhance performance, along with the GDDR6-AIM itself under the slogan of “Boost Your AI: Discover the Power of PIM³ with SK hynix’s AiM⁴.”

³Processing-In-Memory (PIM): A next-generation technology that adds computational capabilities to semiconductor memories to solve the problem of data movement congestion in AI and big data processing.

⁴Accelerator in Memory (AiM): SK hynix’s PIM semiconductor product name, which includes GDDR6-AiM.

Figure 2. The prototype AiMX card utilizes multiple GDDR6-AiM chips for enhanced performance

As a low-power, high-speed memory solution capable of handling large amounts of data, AiMX is set to play a key role in the advancement of data-intensive generative AI⁵ systems. The performance of generative AI improves as it is trained on more data, highlighting the need for high-performance products which can be applied to an array of generative AI systems.

⁵Generative AI: AI that learns from large amounts of data to actively generate results based on a user’s specific needs.

Figure 3. Demonstrating a large AI language model with AiMX that utilizes GDDR6-AiM

SK hynix also demonstrated Meta’s generative AI Open Pretrained Transformer (OPT) 13B model on a server system equipped with the AiMX prototype. The AiMX system featuring GDDR6-AiM chips reduces data processing time by more than 10 times compared to systems with GPUs, while consuming one-fifth the power. The company’s demonstration piqued the interest of global companies providing AI services by showing that it can deliver higher performance⁶ than the most recent accelerators.

⁶Performance is based on the condition that the AiM Control Hub inside the AiMX card is developed as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

Figure 4. Eui-cheol Lim, vice president of SK hynix’s Solution Development division, delivers a presentation on AiMX

In addition, the company held a session outlining the benefits of AiMX. In a presentation titled “Cost-Effective Generative AI Inference Acceleration using AiM,” Eui-cheol Lim, vice president of the Solution Development division, compared the performance of GPUs and AiMX and discussed the future of next-generation intelligent semiconductor memories.

“SK hynix’s AiMX is a solution that delivers higher performance while consuming less power, and costing less than conventional GPUs,” Lim explained. “We will continue to develop memory technologies that will lead the way in the era of artificial intelligence.”

The post SK hynix Debuts Prototype of First GDDR6-AiM Accelerator Card ‘AiMX’ for Generative AI first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.