Samsung Electronics producing 5 new auto memory chips

Samsung Electronics' new automotive memory chips for electric vehicles [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Samsung Electronics started mass-producing new automotive memory chips designed to store and transfer a high volume of data under extreme temperature conditions, the company announced on Thursday.

Of the five types of the chips introduced, three are for infotainment system on electric vehicles: a 256-gigabyte solid state drive (SSD), a 2-gigabyte Double Data Rate 4 (DDR4) and a 2-gigabyte Graphics Double Data Rate 6 (GDDR6).

The remaining are for facilitating the autonomous driving of electric vehicles: a 2-gigabyte GDDR6 and a 128-gigabyte Universal Flash Storage.

The new products are designed to operate at between minus 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and 105 degrees Celsius.

The chipmaker said that the increased media consumption on infotainment systems — ranging from video streaming to gaming — has led into heightened demand for high-performing automotive memory chips.

Fast-evolving infotainment system offerings compel car manufacturers to upgrade auto chips more frequently.

"With the recent proliferation of electric vehicles and the rapid advancement of infotainment and autonomous driving systems, the semiconductor automotive platform is facing a paradigm shift," said Han Jin-man, executive vice president and head of memory global sales & marketing at Samsung Electronics.

"What used to be a seven to eight-year replacement cycle is now being compressed into a three to four-year cycle, and at the same time, performance and capacity requirements are advancing to levels commonly found in servers," he said in a statement.

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