Samsung was a bit late in the high-bandwidth memory space, but that allowed rival SK Hynix to get ahead and establish a strong position in the industry. Samsung has been trying to jump on the AI bandwagon with its HBM3E memory modules, but the results haven't been quite what the company had hoped for.
To avoid a repeat, the company is focusing on next-generation CXL DRAM early to capitalize on the increased demand for high-end memory modules being generated by the AI boom.
The CXL DRAM market is expected to grow to billions of dollars over the next few years.
Samsung is no stranger to CXL. The company has been developing it for over a decade and is currently working with partners to validate its products. Samsung actually developed the industry's first CXL DRAM in May 2021, and also launched the world's first 512GB CXL DRAM chip in 2022.
Choi Jang-seok, vice president of Samsung's new business planning team, said at a press conference that the company plans to mass-produce 256GB CXL 2.0-compatible DRAM later this year. Samsung expects the CXL market to start to really pick up steam in the second half of this year and to “grow explosively” from 2028.
CXL (Computer Express Link) improves the efficiency of DRAM and other storage modules used in high-performance servers. CXL enables much greater memory capacity and bandwidth than is available today. AI and machine learning require massive amounts of data processing power, and demand is expected to grow significantly as they become more widespread.
