JEDEC, the organization responsible for defining the specifications of industry-standard memory types, is close to finalizing SPHBM4, a new memory standard designed to deliver full HBM4-class bandwidth with a 'narrow' 512-bit interface, higher capacities, and lower integration costs by leveraging compatibility with conventional organic substrates. If the technology takes off, it will address many gaps in the markets HBM could serve, but as we'll explain below, it isn't likely to be a GDDR memory killer.
Although high-bandwidth memory (HBM) 1024-bit or 2048-bit interfaces enable unbeatable performance and energy efficiency, such interfaces take a lot of precious silicon real estate inside high-end processors, which limits the number of HBM stacks per chip and therefore memory capacity supported by AI accelerators, impacting both the performance of individual accelerators as well as the capabilities of large clusters that use them.
HBM in a 'standard' package
The Standard Package High Bandwidth Memory (SPHBM4) addresses this issue by reducing the HBM4 memory interface width from 2048 bits to 512 bits with 4:1 serialization to maintain the same bandwidth. JEDEC doesn't specify whether '4:1 serialization' means quadrupling the data transfer rate from 8 GT/s in HBM4, or introducing a new encoding scheme with higher clocks. Still, the goal is obvious: preserve aggregate HBM4 bandwidth with a 512-bit interface.
Inside, SPHBM4 packages will use an industry-standard base die (probably made by a foundry using a logic fabrication process and therefore not cheaper as routing 'wide' DRAM ICs into a 'narrow' base die will probably get nasty here in terms of density and there will be clocking challenges due to slow wires from DRAMs and fast wires from the base die itself). It will also use standard HBM4 DRAM dies, which simplifies controller development (at least at the logical level) and ensures that capacity per stack remains on par with HBM4 and HBM4E, up to 64 GB per HBM4E stack.
On paper, this means quadrupling SPHBM4 memory capacity compared to HBM4, but in practice, AI chip developers will likely balance memory capacity with higher compute capability and the versatility they can pack into their chips, as silicon real estate becomes more expensive with each new process technology.
A GDDR7 killer?
An avid reader will likely ask why not use SPHBM4 memory with gaming GPUs and graphics cards, which could enable higher bandwidth at a moderate cost increase compared to GDDR7 or a potential GDDR7X with PAM4 encoding.
Designed to deliver HBM4-class bandwidth, SPHBM4 is fundamentally engineered to prioritize performance and capacity over other considerations, such as power and cost.
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