THE KOREA ECONOMIC DAILY, GLOBAL EDITION

SK Hynix Inc. has developed a next-generation memory chip with computing capabilities, which the company says will provide solutions for data congestion in big data processing driven by artificial intelligence.

SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker, said on Wednesday its latest technology, dubbed processing in memory or PIM, will produce a smart memory chip by adding computational functions to semiconductor memory, which stores data.

In computers, a central processing unit (CPU) or a graphic processing unit (GPU)  works like a human brain to process data.

The South Korea-based chipmaker said it will showcase its PIM technology at this year’s International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) to be held online from Feb. 20 to Feb. 24 in San Francisco.

Adopting the PIM technology, the company said it has already developed a sample of graphics double data rate 6-accelerator in memory or GDDR6-AiM, which can process data at a speed of 16 Gbps.

A combination of GDDR6-AiM with a CPU and a GPU, instead of a typical DRAM chip, will make computation speed 16 times faster, according to SK Hynix.

The GDDR6-AiM chip will be suitable for machine learning, high-performance computing and big data computation and storage, it said.

COLLABORATION WITH SAPEON

SK Hynix said its PIM technology reduces data movement to the CPU and GPU, thus slashing power consumption by 80%, which in turn lowers carbon emissions.

The company said it will collaborate with SAPEON Inc., an artificial intelligence chip company recently spun off from SK Telecom Co., to unveil a new product that combines GDDR6-AiM with AI chips.

“The use of artificial neural network data has increased rapidly, requiring computing technology optimized for computational characteristics,” said SAPEON Chief Executive Ryu Soo-jung.

SK Telecom, the country’s top mobile carrier, said in January it is separating its AI chip business as a subsidiary to offer artificial intelligence as a service (AIaaS).

In November of last year, SK Telecom unveiled SAPEON X220, which it claims can process artificial intelligence tasks faster and more efficiently than its competitors. It is currently developing an upgraded version called SAPEON X330.

Ahn Hyun, head of SK Hynix’s solution development division, said the company expects its latest technology to build a new memory solution ecosystem, incorporating computing capabilities to memory chips.

Write to Shin-Young Park at nyusos@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.