Following up from our previous installment, in which we explored the evolution of human communication methodologies, the development of mobile phones prior to smartphones, and semiconductors, this piece will focus on the story of smartphones and Phono sapiens.

Phono sapiens: smartphones change our daily lives

Professor Choi Jae Boong As I mentioned earlier, things that were formerly used as a means of communication for humans, such as texts, pictures, photos, and videos, are now being carried out on smartphones. The truth is that smartphones have become so ingrained in modern life that they are changing the way people live.

Using smartphones from a young age has also changed the way children learn today. As a child, I remember we learned a lot from adults, and we used to ask teachers and parents questions about things we didn’t understand. In today’s world, however, young people no longer tend to ask, since it takes only one search to satisfy their curiosity.

Technical Leader Lee Gaeun Totally agree with you. YouTube and the internet are great resources for learning anything from simple cooking methods to exercise routines, and more.

Professor Choi Jae Boong That’s right. Smartphones have changed the way we obtain knowledge and the standard of knowledge itself. Search information, which represents the collective intelligence of many users, has become the standard of knowledge. As a result of acquiring this knowledge, younger generations no longer need to really ask questions to adults. There’s just no reason for it.

What’s more is that young people are adept at actively utilizing data obtained through their devices. Now that smartphones are so common, so-called digital literacy¹⁾ is becoming more important in many areas. I believe we are witnessing a revolution in which the capabilities of this new generation, those who have grown up with smartphones, will outperform those of previous generations.

Technical Leader Choi Wonjae Thanks to the rapid development of mobile communications technology, we can access the Internet freely through our smartphones. The development of 3G (3G, WCDMA²⁾, etc.), 4G (4G, LTE), and even 5G mobile communications technologies has led to a mobile communications environment centered on the smartphone.

In a way, the emergence of more advanced mobile communications technologies is what brought video sharing websites like YouTube into the spotlight. As data transmission speeds have increased exponentially, mobile communication has become capable of transmitting high-definition videos. When smartphones first came out, you might recall finding the continual buffering to be extremely frustrating, even when watching a brief video that lasted only a few minutes. Buffering now hardly ever happens, even when watching HD movies or TV shows. This is possible because we can now send and receive massive amounts of data.

▲ History of mobile communications technology (Source: SKT)

Technical Leader Lee Gaeun I’m guessing the recent popularity of OTT³⁾ platforms is probably due to the development of such mobile communications technology, right?

Professor Choi Jae Boong Yes. The expansion of OTT services has significantly changed our lives. Unlike a few years ago, people can now find and watch any program they want without having to turn on the television. Domestic terrestrial broadcasters’ advertising sales have steadily declined since the introduction of smartphones. As a result, the previous monopoly on media power held by a few broadcasters has now shifted to an unspecified number of content creators.

Ultimately, we can see that many things have changed since the introduction of smartphones, ranging from how we obtain information and knowledge to changes in the media ecosystem. So, what kinds of semiconductors influenced the development of the smartphone that brought about such changes?

▲ Technical Leader Lee Gaeun emphasized the importance of LPDDR in the interview.

Technical Leader Lee Gaeun For me, LPDDR (Low Power Double Data Rate) is the first semiconductor that comes to mind. LPDDR is a type of DRAM that consumes very little power while carrying out maximum performance. LPDDR is also known as smartphone DRAM. This is because it was designed to compensate for the shortcomings of mobile devices such as smartphones as much as possible.

The key to LPDDR is that it should use as little power as possible. Our smartphones have a limited amount of power. Of course, you can charge them when necessary, but in general, smartphone usage requires an environment with as little power as possible for as long as possible.

▲ SK hynix’s development of LPDDR

Technical Leader Lee Gaeun LPDDR is also one of SK hynix’s flagship products. Due to LPDDR’s low power usage and high performance, there is a growing movement to introduce the technology not only in smartphones, but also in servers.

Personally, I think LPDDR will be introduced in more electronic products. Wireless and smart functions are the latest trends in electronics, and LPDDR, which requires DRAM to process data and uses a limited amount of power, will be critical for these properties in electronic products.

Technical Leader Choi Wonjae There is something impressive about the rate at which the LPDDR market is expanding. Recently, LPDDR technology has developed very rapidly. This development was actually made possible by the fierce competition among smartphones. The desire for a smartphone with a faster processing speed accelerated the development of semiconductors. At one point, people realized that LPDDR was truly amazing. It requires a little bit of power, but the processing speed is faster. Although LPDDR was designed for smartphones, it is now being used in a wider range of devices owing to the relatively low cost compared to its performance and performance per watt⁴⁾.

Professor Choi Jae Boong Given that I’m here with you both from SK hynix, I’d love to hear more about NAND, which has always piqued my interest. I recently read that SK hynix has succeeded in developing a 238-layer 4D NAND. NAND memory is also used in smartphones, correct? What is the significance of SK hynix’s 238-layer 4D TLC NAND development for smartphones?

▲ Technical Leader Choi Wonjae explaining NAND to Professor Choi Jae Boong

Technical Leader Choi Wonjae What we commonly call NAND is NAND flash memory. In flash memory, data is not lost even when the power of an electronic device, such as a smartphone or computer, is turned off. One of these types of flash memory is NAND.

NAND can be divided into different types based on the level of cells that store data, but in a broad sense, everything from common USB storage devices to SSDs (Solid State Drives) used in smartphones and computers can be called NAND.

The 238-layer 4D TLC NAND sample that SK hynix recently succeeded in developing was recorded as the world’s tallest NAND. By stacking higher in a smaller area, we were able to demonstrate more capacity, faster speeds (I/O, cell writing speed, etc.), and better power efficiency.

Professor Choi Jae Boong If this is the case, I guess the capacity of future smartphones will substantially increase. I’m intrigued by the trend of NAND being used in smartphones, and curious about how SK hynix sees the NAND market.

Technical Leader Choi Wonjae So far, NAND has been developing very quickly, but I think it still needs to develop further. This is because the camera performance applied to smartphones has dramatically improved, and more advanced applications require more capacity. I believe that soon, we will need to store much more data than we do now, because of things like Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI).

In fact, according to global market research company Statista, global data consumption is predicted to reach some 181 zettabytes (ZB, 1ZB = 1.1 trillion GB) by 2025. This is a threefold increase compared to the 64 zettabytes of information consumed in 2020.

▲ Global consumption of data and information is growing exponentially. (Source: Statista (2022))

Professor Choi Jae Boong So, as the amount of information and data we consume grows significantly, will more advanced NAND be required?

Technical Leader Choi Wonjae Yes, that’s right. That’s why the 238-layer 4D TLC NAND sample is a forward-looking move. With much more capacity, faster processing speeds, and lower power requirements⁵⁾, we were able to successfully create a smaller product with higher productivity.

Smartphones and semiconductors will change the future

Professor Choi Jae Boong The development of mobile communications technology, LPDDR, and NAND flash, which we have discussed so far, appears to be a series of steps that we are taking as we move forward. All of these processes would not have been possible without advances in semiconductor technology. What matters in the future, I believe, will be how we use data. In this regard, AI, which processes massive amounts of data, will be a critical field of competition.

Technical Leader Choi Wonjae I too think that AI will play a crucial role. SK hynix also recognizes the importance of AI and is developing many semiconductor products in anticipation of it. For example, we are developing PIM (Processing-In-Memory), a next-generation intelligent memory technology that can be used for machine learning, high-performance computing, and Big Data operations and storage by adding computational functions to data processing. We are also developing HBM3 (High Bandwidth Memory), an ultra-high-performance DRAM product that can be applied to supercomputers.

Technical Leader Lee Gaeun I have been thinking a lot about how smartphones will develop by focusing on devices. When considering the development of computers from the time they first appeared until now, it is clear that they are getting smaller and smaller. Desktops used to be the most common, but at some point, people started using laptops. Since then, tablets and smartphones have become the most popular types of computers.

Given these trends, I believe we will eventually no longer need to carry around the smartphones that we now use. Even though several products have already been released, smart watches and smart glasses are predicted to usher in the next computing era of wearables.

Professor Choi Jae Boong Even now, AR glasses, VR glasses, and smart watches are gaining quite a lot of attention. A certain level of market penetration has already been achieved for these wearables. Are you saying that wearables will be able to perform even more advanced processes than what we see now, that is, a level of computing that we can only imagine?

Technical Leader Lee Gaeun That’s correct. However, there are many obstacles to overcome. Most importantly, future devices should be small and light enough to be comfortable to wear. When worn for at least 8 hours per day, they should not be too heavy or too large to be a burden. At the same time, future devices must have enough power to run for at least 8 hours. They should last as long as possible with the smallest battery possible. In this regard, I anticipate that the LPDDR, which we previously discussed, will play an important role.

But even if these technical problems are resolved, there is still a heap of regulations to get through. Wearables that come into direct contact with the human body are subject to stricter regulations than other, more general products. We must thoroughly address the issue of unexpected heat output, or in the case of glass, any elements that may harm vision must be removed before they even occur. These issues too will eventually require technological solutions.

Professor Choi Jae Boong If that happens, humans can truly become ‘Phono sapiens,’ where smartphones literally become part of a new body. I certainly look forward to the development of semiconductors that will no doubt be at the forefront of all these developments.

As smartphones have become part of our lives, semiconductors have had an enormous impact on both the big and the small. As we close this conversation, let us remember that semiconductor technology will continue to shape the future as we know it.

¹digital literacy: refers to the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and utilize a wide range of digital information
²Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA): utilizes a wider bandwidth to increase data transmission speed, compared to the 2nd generation mobile communications technology at the time, CDMA. The 3rd generation mobile communications technology is compatible with 3G mobile communications standards set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Video calls and automatic roaming services launched shortly after.
³OTT (Over The Top): An internet service that delivers media content such as broadcast programs and movies. Some of the most popular OTT services in Korea are Netflix, Wavve, TVing, and Watcha.
⁴performance per watt: an indicator of how much computation is performed per watt of power consumed.
⁵In July 2022, SK hynix successfully developed a 238-layer 512 Gb 4D TLC NAND flash sample. This was 34% more productive, 50% faster at transferring data, and used 21% less power than the 176-layer 4D NAND flash developed in December 2020.

The post Phono Sapiens, Phones, and Semiconductors EP.2 first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.

Phono Sapiens, a portmanteau of the words smartphone and Homo sapiens (thinker), is a concept that states that smartphones have become a part of our bodies. Engineering Professor Choi Jae Boong, author of Phono Sapiens: A New Human Species Created by the Smartphone, believes that modern people think, act, and communicate on their smartphones. So how did smartphones become such an integral part of our lives?

To learn more about the steps involved in making smartphones that have become part of our bodies and how phones have influenced humans, the SK hynix Newsroom team organized a meet-up between Professor Choi and SK hynix members (NAND Design Technical Leader Choi Wonjae, DRAM Mobile & Auto Product Planning Technical Leader Lee Gaeun).

In addition to covering the impact smartphones have had on humankind, the newsroom would like to discuss the processes that took place before the advent of smartphones. Of course, the story of semiconductors, which serve as the bedrock of smartphones, cannot be left out.

Let’s check out the fascinating story they shared on site at the Phone Museum in Yeoju City, Korea, where visitors can explore the history of mobile phones, including that of smartphones.

Professor Choi Jae Boong Today, I will have a conversation with members of SK hynix about mobile phones and smartphones under the theme of technology and tools for social communication. I’m looking forward to this interesting talk. Let’s meet them!

Technical Leader Choi Wonjae Hello. I joined SK hynix 10 years ago and work in NAND memory design.

Technical Leader Lee Gaeun My name is Lee Gaeun, Technical Leader at DRAM Mobile & Auto Product Planning. I plan semiconductor products for smartphones, such as LPDDR. I’m also looking forward to discussing interesting stories related to ‘mobile devices’ from the past to the present, including smartphones.

As Social Animals, Humans Use Phones to Communicate

Professor Choi Jae Boong As I look around the Phone Museum, I am struck by the fact that human civilization has made tremendous efforts to communicate with one another. Language was eventually developed so that humans, who are social animals, could communicate with each other. As language developed, we began to record it because of the need to transfer knowledge to future generations or to pass on information to others. This process led to the development of letters and paper. Then paintings came about as a means of expressing and communicating, since paintings can convey information and ideas that cannot be expressed in words. How do you think these paintings would have evolved?

▲ Professor Choi Jae Boong and Technical Leader Lee Gaeun having a conversation about how humans communicate.

Technical Leader Lee Gaeun Wouldn’t they eventually become photographs? Photographs help us show and tell what we are looking at in this moment more clearly and in detail. I often take and share pictures when sending messages to my friends to explain things that are difficult to convey in words or writing.

Professor Choi Jae Boong That’s right. Photos have become a very important means of communication. There is no doubt that photos are better at showing something than explaining it with a painting.

There is another element that plays the most important role these days aside from photos: videos. Videos are very effective in conveying various scenes or situations that are difficult to express in a single photo. Photos and videos, especially social media and new media such as YouTube, have grown explosively and have become the most important means of communication for humankind. These are the tools and technologies that human civilization is using for social interaction.

▲ Communication methods developed by humankind

Technical Leader Choi Wonjae I’m a little surprised that modern-day people are actively utilizing all these methods at the same time through one single device – the smartphone. Sending and receiving text messages with other people, expressing emotions using emoticons, and communicating with each other while sharing photos and videos on social media are all happening on smartphones.

Professor Choi Jae Boong That’s exactly what I wanted to say. Currently, humankind is actively using communication methods accumulated over thousands of years via a single smartphone. Also, the metaverse, which will become a new means of communication in the future, is highly likely to be achieved through mobile devices such as smartphones. I wrote Phono Sapiens because of this change in humankind. Someday, smartphones may become our eyes, ears, and brains. The innovation that smartphones are making will end up playing a pivotal role for humankind, and I think the semiconductors that drive the development of these smartphones will become even more critical.

Technical Leader Choi Wonjae I totally agree. As you pointed out, semiconductors used in smartphones and computers were initially developed for communication. In 1947, the world’s first transistor was invented at Bell Labs, a company named after Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the world’s first telephone. Transistors were indeed created to meet the requirements of telephone systems. Transistors were a new technology that could amplify signals and turn a switch on and off. To be fair, I think it was a great invention and an innovative technology that deserved the Nobel Prize. Then, in 1959, Dr. Dawon Kahng of Bell Labs developed a new type of transistor, MOSFET. This can be said to be the early form of the semiconductor as we know it now.

In the 1980s, first-generation mobile phone companies such as Nokia and Motorola began releasing portable phones on the market. And in 1983, Motorola introduced the world’s first commercial mobile phone. We often refer to the DynaTAC 8000X as a brick phone. It had a memory that could store only 30 phone numbers at the time, and since then, mobile phones have developed at a frightening pace to reach their current status.

▲ Innovative events before the appearance of the smartphone

Professor Choi Jae Boong Mobile phones may also be a result of humankind’s efforts to communicate with one another. In particular, mobile communication technology that is significantly less space-constrained is truly innovative. Isn’t it also necessary to use semiconductors in this type of mobile communication technology?

Technical Leader Choi Wonjae Yes, semiconductors play a key role in mobile communication technology. With the introduction of Qualcomm’s second-generation (2G) mobile communication technology, which was a breakthrough after the first-generation mobile communication based on cellular systems, the number of mobile phone users significantly increased. By introducing this technology, called CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), more people were able to communicate using frequencies.

If we take a closer look at CDMA, several people mix their codes with the signals, and calculate and exchange them to use the frequency bandwidth. This process requires calculating codes and signals for each user’s mobile communication. All of these processes are conducted through semiconductors. Ultimately, thanks to the development of semiconductors, mobile communication technology was able to develop remarkably.

Ever-Changing and Evolving “Phones” Displayed at the Phone Museum

▲ (From left) Technical Leader Lee Gaeun, Technical Leader Choi Wonjae, and Professor Choi Jae Boong, discussing the first foldable phone

Technical Leader Choi Wonjae Advances in semiconductor technology have not only made mobile phones smaller, but also allowed them to offer more functions. After the introduction of DynaTAC’s memory that could store phone numbers, the role of memory in mobile phones became very important. At first, there was a need to store more phone numbers, and accordingly, semiconductor memory also developed rapidly. After continuous development, mobile phones and semiconductors have advanced to the point that they can now store not only phone numbers, but also thousands or even tens of thousands of photos and data-heavy media such as videos and music.

Professor Choi Jae Boong It is notable that the semiconductor memory, which is SK hynix’s flagship business, was first developed and led by US companies before Japanese rivals took over briefly.¹⁾ Come to think of it, it’s quite remarkable how much the development of the semiconductor and mobile phone industry embarked upon such a period of rapid development when under the leadership of Korean companies.

Technical Leader Lee Gaeun Engineers must have put a great deal of effort, but I think consumer demand also played a big role. Before smartphones, mobile phones were only capable of mobile communication, but then various functions slowly started being added to them. Consumers loved new features, such as MP3 players and cameras, and I think semiconductors also developed as these features were adopted.

Professor Choi Jae Boong Yes, most likely. It’s amazing how many things people have tried to squeeze into this little phone. As MP3 players were developed and became popular based on semiconductor memory, efforts were made to incorporate MP3 functions into mobile phones. The same is true with cameras. During the transition period from film cameras to digital cameras, the demand for digital cameras exploded, and phone manufacturers began to release cell phones with cameras. We’ve even seen beam projectors being added to phones, DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) phones, game phones with a gamepad, and even wristwatch-type wristwatch phones.

Today, only music (MP3) and photography (camera) remain as core features. In fact, music and photography are also what we humans are drawn to the most. Even before mobile phones, people enjoyed the culture of music as a form of art. The same goes for photos. Throughout history, photography has played a vital role in keeping humankind’s history alive. And through photography, individuals are resolving their desire to cherish their happy moments. The desire for music and photography has already been proven over hundreds, if not thousands of years. Mobile phones are the easiest way to satisfy these people’s needs. With the advancement of semiconductors, we are all able to listen to music and take pictures through our cell phones, aren’t we?

▲ A variety of efforts have been made to incorporate functions such as MP3 and TV into mobile phones.

Technical Leader Choi Wonjae Yes, that’s right. In the MP3 function, which relies heavily on data storage, the development of semiconductor memory has made a significant contribution. In fact, the development of semiconductors also had a significant impact on camera functionality. The emergence of semiconductor-based CCD²⁾ and CIS³⁾ technology played a major role in the transition from film cameras to digital cameras. From the 1990s, most mobile phones started to have a camera function. This has been the case since the 1990s, when the relatively inexpensive CIS technology improved and was put to practical use. With the help of CIS technology, which is still being used in smartphones, we have been able to carry personal cameras around with us for years.

In my opinion, the change in the display also played a significant role. In the past, the display of brick phones, which could only indicate numbers, developed to display characters. With the introduction of LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays), mobile phones were able to handle a large amount of data. In fact, I think that the DMB and camera you mentioned earlier were functions that would not be imaginable without the development of better displays. Although displays are not a technology that can be implemented only with semiconductors, in the end, they are essential for their normal operation. In this regard, I would say that semiconductors have played a very important role in the development of mobile phones.

▲ (From left) Professor Choi Jae Boong, Technical Leader Lee Gaeun, Technical Leader Choi Wonjae looking around the Phone Museum in Yeoju City

Professor Choi Jae Boong Really interesting stuff. Well, today, we explored the evolution of phones at the Phone Museum. From our discussion, I can definitely feel that semiconductors have played a very important role in the development of mobile phones. I also believe that smartphones, which are now inseparable from our lives, are the result of all of these processes, and are in some ways actually an extension of them. From now on, we’re going to talk about the smartphones that we use today. Let’s take a look at what impact smartphones have had on, and what are the essential semiconductors that make up smartphones.

In this conversation, Professor Choi Jae Boong and SK hynix’s Technical Leaders Choi Wonjae and Lee Gaeun looked at how humans communicate and how mobile phones have evolved. The next episode will focus on the people who use smartphones and the semiconductors that are applied to them. Their discussion will cover semiconductors such as NAND, which can store large amounts of data, and LPDDR, which has an impressive cost-effectiveness ratio and low power requirements. See you next time, when SK hynix and Professor Choi Jae Boong continue their discussion about smartphones and semiconductors.

¹DRAM, a type of semiconductor memory, was first developed in 1966 at the Watson Research Center of IBM in the US. The first product that Intel, another American company, produced since its foundation in 1968 was also DRAM
²CCD (Charge-Coupled Device Image Sensor): A sensor that converts light into an electric charge and creates an image, called a charge-coupled device. The image quality is high, and the noise and afterimage processing effects are excellent.
³CIS (CMOS Image Sensor): An image sensor with a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) structure that consumes a low amount of power. CIS technology consumes about a tenth of the power of CCD technology. A single 3.3V power supply and integration with peripheral circuits are also possible. Even though the sensitivity of CIS is lower than that of CCD, image quality has improved significantly in recent years, so it is widely used in both mobile phones as well as high-resolution digital cameras and car rear view cameras.

The post Phono Sapiens, Phones, and Semiconductors EP.1 first appeared on SK hynix Newsroom.