Samsung Electronics (SSNLF) is collaborating with Nvidia (NVDA) to accelerate the development of next-generation NAND flash memory chips, Seoul Economic Daily reported, citing industry sources.
The South Korean conglomerate has jointly developed with Nvidia an AI system that dramatically accelerates research and development of ultra-low-power NAND based on ferroelectric materials — a technology that will determine AI chip performance, the report added.
Nvidia and Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.
The strategy reflects both companies’ efforts to secure technological leadership in next-generation chip competition.
A joint research team from Samsung’s Semiconductor Research Institute, Nvidia, and Georgia Institute of Technology developed a “Physics-Informed Neural Operator (PINO),” model capable of analyzing ferroelectric NAND device performance more than 10,000 times faster than conventional methods. The research findings have been released globally, the report noted.
Ferroelectric materials are new substances that can maintain polarization — separation of positive and negative charges — without continuous electrical input. Research into using these materials for NAND memory devices has been active because of their ability to store information efficiently with minimal power consumption, with Samsung leading these efforts. Ferroelectric NAND refers to NAND made with ferroelectric materials instead of conventional silicon, according to the report.
Commercializing ferroelectric NAND needs follow-up research that analyzes and improves material performance characteristics like threshold voltage and data retention through computer simulation. Technology Computer-Aided Design, or TCAD, an analysis tool generally used in the semiconductor industry, usually requires 60 hours per operation, limiting research speed. Samsung and Nvidia’s research team succeeded in lowering operation time to under 10 seconds using AI trained on physical laws, the report added.
Based on the research results, Samsung will partner with Nvidia — its largest memory customer — on ferroelectric NAND development via commercialization, drawing attention to their future moves, the report noted.
Last year, Samsung announced ferroelectric NAND technology capable of reducing power consumption by 96% compared to conventional NAND in the journal Nature, indicating a major industry innovation.
South Korean companies Samsung and SK hynix are among the largest memory chipmaking companies in the world. SK hynix is a major supplier of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, chips to Nvidia. Samsung and American company Micron Technology (MU) also compete with SK hynix in this space.