Samsung puts AI processor on a memory chip

Image of Samsung Electronics' HBM-PIM.

Samsung Electronics has developed a high speed dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip with an artificial intelligence (AI) processor.

The product, dubbed the HBM-PIM, is the industry’s first memory chip embedded with an AI processor, according to Samsung Wednesday.

It is based on an design called processing-in-memory technology, which is designed to bring powerful AI computing capabilities along with high-performance memory.

The architecture could significantly cut latency compared to conventional systems that have separate memory chips and AI processors.

“The new architecture is able to deliver over twice the system performance while reducing energy consumption by more than 70 percent,” Samsung Electronics said in a statement.
"Our groundbreaking HBM-PIM is the industry’s first programmable PIM solution tailored for diverse AI-driven workloads such as HPC, training and inference,” said Park Kwang-il, senior vice president of Memory Product Planning at Samsung Electronics.

“We plan to build upon this breakthrough by further collaborating with AI solution providers for even more advanced PIM-powered applications,” Park said in a statement.

Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. research institute, will work with Samsung to assess the performance of the new chip.
“HBM-PIM design has demonstrated impressive performance and power gains on important classes of AI applications, so we look forward to working together to evaluate its performance on additional problems of interest to Argonne National Laboratory,” said Rick Stevens, Argonne’s Associate Laboratory Director for Computing, Environment and Life Sciences.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]