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Have you ever wondered what a cave dweller would think of the internet? Perhaps what Cleopatra would have made of video calls? Ever tried to explain bitcoin to your parents? Technology has always evolved in a rather exponential manner, and advancements made in the 4th Industrial Revolution will accelerate innovation at a pace ten times that of their predecessors.

Figure 1. SK hynix demonstrates sustainable semiconductor technology at CES 2022

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This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) showcased incredible tech innovations and inspired prototypes for the future. Everything from the metaverse to the latest eco-friendly innovations, nothing was left to the imagination this past January. Flipping the script on technologies previously thought impossible, the internet aims to become decentralized, digital twins are fast-tracking production in every sector, and the metaverse is finally taking shape—but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Nuanced AI and Voice Assistants

With natural language processing (NLP) capabilities improving voice-activated personal assistants in speakers and on our mobile phones, we’ll no longer be limited to a shortlist of key phrases and actions. Using your voice to make requests of technology will follow a more natural dialogue thanks to the analysis of hours of cataloged conversation. Assistants will continue to learn how to answer the specific needs of individual users by recognizing unique speech patterns and terminology use, increasing the number of complex commands they can execute. Some AI voice-activated assistants are becoming so advanced they can even write news articles independently, making receiving benefits like a personalized news briefing each morning a genuine possibility.

Next-Gen Computing

The advancements in quantum computing have the potential to disrupt nearly every industry, whether it’s completing molecule-level simulations, breaking cryptographic algorithms, or fast-tracking the adoption of self-driving vehicles. Processing, storing, and accessing datapoints securely and efficiently is critical to the success of such sophisticated computing functions.

Harnessing the phenomena of quantum mechanics in computation requires advanced semiconductor solutions like next-gen DRAM. Last October, SK hynix became the first in the industry to develop the High Bandwidth Memory 3, HBM3, the world’s best-performing DRAM. As the demands of DRAM continue to evolve alongside computer technology, research persists to unlock the ultimate memory solutions for innovations like quantum computers which could include cryogenic-DRAM-based memory systems.

Figure 2. SK hynix’s HBM3 leverages 4^th generation technology
combined with multiple vertically connected chips

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Global Satellite Internet

The private space race is expanding access to the internet into low-income and rural areas, with companies like SpaceX and OneWeb investing heavily in building networks of cost-efficient LEO (Low Earth orbit) satellites. The technology boasts a variety of other benefits, including higher power signals, precisely timed 3-D positioning, and protection from interference caused by space phenomena such as solar storms. Additional LEO-satellite networks will help create increased internet access and more opportunities for residents of peripheral communities to contribute to the global digital economy.

Figure 3. LEO satellites work together with radio telescopes to connect people around the world

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Digital Twin Technology

Digital twin technology will be a linchpin for continued digital transformation in 2022. Allowing companies to visualize and simulate physical products, systems, and even operations in the virtual world dramatically reduces the time and investment required when developing new offerings or optimizing existing ones. No longer will product and system innovations depend on lengthy prototyping processes but instead efficient digital models that will predict both the triumphs and the vulnerabilities of new approaches. Running such intricate modeling software requires dependable memory solutions like SK hynix’s 24Gb DDR5 DRAM to make data transactions faster and less complex, creating flawless digital clones of real-world items.

Figure 4. SK hynix 24Gb DDR5 DRAM has the largest single-chip density in the industry

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The Metaverse

This 2021 buzzword is set to launch mixed reality offerings like AR and VR into entirely new realms. Essentially a digital-reality playground, the metaverse presents new opportunities for society to community build and connect regardless of geographic constraints. A network of 3D worlds fostering social connections online, the metaverse will change the way we interact on the world wide web. Reclining in your lounge chair while porting one of the latest VR headsets is now a ticket to countless new adventures. Some metaverse-accessing VR hardware intends to upgrade to include eye-tracking and foveated rendering for a truly out-of-this-world experience. While some similarities can be drawn between earlier open-world, role-playing games and the metaverse, this latest iteration marks only the beginning of what this new online world has to offer.

As always, SK hynix is prepared to respond to the ever-evolving needs of the industry and the next-generation tech trends, including the metaverse. In December 2021, SK hynix closed the first phase of its acquisition of Intel’s NAND and SSD business, further strengthening its server and data-center-oriented solution capabilities and becoming a major growth engine for the semiconductor memory industry. Furthermore, at CES 2022 SK hynix, SK Square, and SK Telecom announced the launch of the SK ICT Alliance, offering the first of many opportunities to share its meaningful innovations and demonstrate an appetite to fulfill the needs of a rapidly expanding ICT industry.

Figure 5. Park Jung-ho, Vice Chairman and co-CEO of SK hynix announced
the establishment of the SK ICT Alliance at CES 2022

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As the tech sector continues to grow in 2022, so does the semiconductor memory industry. More people are coming online, digital offerings are becoming more sophisticated, and the volume of data remains ever-expanding, all of which raise the expectations on semiconductor memory performance.

SK hynix continues to break ground with the kind of meaningful semiconductor R&D across DRAM, NAND Flash, and more that transformed these 2022 tech trends from a dream to a reality.

The post SK hynix Picks – The Top Tech Trends Defining 2022 first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

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When Facebook recently announced that it would change its name to Meta, reflective of its focus on the metaverse, it sparked an overnight curiosity about the word ‘metaverse.’ Until then, the term mostly had been limited to tech enthusiast circles, where advancements in virtual reality and other emerging technologies were the focus. Facebook, as a company, has been vocal about its interests in the metaverse and is putting itself into a leadership role for defining what the metaverse might look like. But a platform company alone won’t be able to define the metaverse.

Technically, the metaverse isn’t a real thing. Even though the concept of a fictitious universe goes back to 20th-Century science fiction, the metaverse remains largely a concept – though the technology has advanced in recent years that helped frame a vision for social, economic, and cultural interactions between avatars. At last, the distinction between the virtual and real world is beginning to blur.

Think of the Metaverse As…

Admittedly, there’s no single definition or example of the metaverse, as the concept is continuously evolving. One way to explain the concept is to imagine the internet itself in a persistent and shared 3D version that is interconnected in a perceived virtual universe. More broadly, it has the potential to broaden beyond virtual environments and into augmented realities that facilitate interactions between the two worlds – physical and virtual.

Credit for the term itself goes to author Neal Stephenson and his 1992 novel Snow Crash, referring to a 3D virtual world where avatars of real people interacted with one another. Today, that’s not so hard to imagine when you consider our exposure to virtual reality games such as Fortnite and Minecraft or social network services such as Second Life and Twinity.

By enabling real-time interactions in a virtual world, they represent what many today might see as the metaverse. Yet, as advanced as those experiences might seem, they still aren’t true reflections of what the metaverse has the potential to evolve into, much of which has to do with the evolving capabilities of advanced technologies.

Still, the science, technology and business visionaries of today recognize what’s coming down the pipeline over the next generation – from faster, low-latency connections to more resilient and powerful technology components – and how it will open doors to new content-based revenue models in brand marketing, digital commerce and, eventually, virtual performances, among others.

Already, companies who shifted to remote work and video conferencing during the pandemic – as well as their employees and customers – have created more awareness around the value of virtual meetings. Taken to the next level, those same meetings could be less video-centric and more focused around an experience where avatars can virtually meet around a virtual table in a virtual conference room and pass virtual documents to one another – in real-time, without hiccups, delays or buffers.

Robust Technology Enables Metaverse Expansion

That’s where the power of the technology comes into play. The interest in future metaverse experiences and applications is driving the advancement of backbone technology, especially among components that enable fast, real-time processing of vast amounts of data generated through these metaverse interactions. And with the expansion of higher-end games, as well as virtual reality and augmented reality applications, the demand for CPU and GPU processors, as well as server DRAM, is expected to increase.

Certainly, graphics capabilities in VR applications have become more advanced over the years – but that’s largely been possible because of powerful semiconductors that provide the enormous memory bandwidth needed to reduce latency and create a seamless experience, even with the slightest turn of the head.

As such, there’s been greater technology capabilities through the development of next-generation low power DRAM for mobile devices, with SK hynix providing the latest technology to smartphone manufacturers. For the first time, SK hynix has adopted the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) equipment – lithography technology that uses extreme ultraviolet – for mass production through a photo process where circuit patterns are drawn on wafer surfaces.

New technology is expected to increase the number of DRAM chips produced from the same size wafer by 25 percent over the previous version. In addition to offering the fastest transfer rate and reducing power consumption by 20 percent, it could also help alleviate supply and demand concerns on global markets. A typical VR application can generate one terabyte of data per hour, or 10 to 20 times the storage capacity used by standard HD video files, creating a need for both processing speed and energy efficiency.

What’s Next for the Metaverse?

The power of the technology is what will allow the physical devices that open the doors to the metaverse to flourish. Facebook demonstrated a proof-of-concept VR headset last summer that simply looked like a pair of oversized sunglasses, headgear on the market today looks quite different and has mostly been limited to bulky goggles weighed down by a battery.

As interest continues to broaden the vision of metaverse environments, the demand for innovation is unlikely to subside. Ericsson has referenced an “internet of the senses” that would transport more than our sight, while the Teslasuit is using haptic feedback in a full-body suit that is already being used for NASA astronaut training. And at last year’s Facebook Connect, John Carmack, consulting CTO at Oculus and the inventor of 3D gaming, identified most promising new possibilities of VR, including emerging applications in the exercise space.

The post Metaverse Evolution Drives DRAM Demand and Development first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.