SK hynix produces sample of PIM chip

SK hynix' GDDR6-AiM memory chip [SK HYNIX]

SK hynix has produced a sample of a processing-in-memory (PIM) chip.

In PIM chips, processing and memory are integrated, reducing latency and addressing the von Neumann bottleneck.

A sample of SK hynix's GDDR6-AiM will be presented during the 2022 ISSCC, an annual semiconductor conference held in San Francisco. It will be held Feb. 20 to Feb. 24.

The new chip will allow for an 80-percent reduction in power consumption used for transferring data between memory and processors, like central processing units and graphics processing units, according to the chipmaker.

SK hynix is the latest to adopt PIM architecture. Samsung Electronics introduced memory chips designed for PIM last year.

Ahn Hyun, head of the SK hynix solution development division, said that the semiconductor company will expand the range of advanced memory chips.

"SK hynix will build a new memory solution ecosystem using the GDDR6-AiM, which has its own computing function," said Ahn, who spearheaded the development of the latest technology and product. "The company will continue to evolve its business model and the direction for technology's development."

In line with the strategy, SK hynix plans to introduce a technology that adds a function for accelerating artificial intelligence and machine learning applications.

The project will be carried out with Sapeon, an chip company that recently spun off from SK Telecom

"The use of artificial neural network data has increased rapidly recently, requiring computing technology optimized for computational characteristics," said Ryu Soo-jung, CEO of Sapeon. "We aim to maximize efficiency in data calculation, costs, and energy use by combining technologies from the two companies."

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