Samsung Revs Up Automotive AI with Smaller, Faster Memory

Recently, Samsung articulated at the 2023 Investors Forum, its targeted focus on the rapidly evolving domain of autonomous driving. To this end, Samsung has devised multiple innovative storage solutions and crafted a comprehensive product portfolio, positioning itself to potentially dominate the automotive memory market in the coming years. In this realm, vehicular components play a critically pivotal role in the functionality of the products.

Samsung contends that, given the robust expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the automotive market harbors immense opportunities. The related semiconductor market is projected to reach $50 billion, with an anticipated annual growth rate of 17% over the next five years. This rate surpasses the 6% in the mobile sector and 12% in High-Performance Computing (HPC). Samsung, already a leader in the memory market with its extensive and complete solutions, stands at a distinct advantage compared to other manufacturers.

To cater to the automotive industry’s computational demands for AI, Samsung plans to introduce a new version of LPDDR5X, utilizing 561FBGA packaging, which is half the size of its predecessors, yet boasts a 20% improvement in energy efficiency. The upgraded chips will range from 2GB to 24GB in capacity, with a per-channel rate of 8.5Gbps, and speeds up to 68GB/s. Next year, Samsung will introduce a removable AutoSSD, with capacities ranging from 512GB to 4TB, and top speeds of 6.5GB/s. By 2025, Samsung will unveil the next-generation GDDR7, with capacities from 2GB to 4GB, a per-channel rate of 32Gbps, and peak speeds of 128GB/s, meeting the requirements for Level 4 autonomous driving commercialization.