SK Hynix has officially started mass production of the world's first 12-layer HBM3E (High Bandwidth Memory) product, boasting an industry-leading 36GB capacity—the largest available for HBM to date. The company plans to begin shipping to customers by the end of this year, following its earlier milestone in March when it delivered the first 8-layer HBM3E samples. This move solidifies SK Hynix's dominant position in high-performance memory technology.

SK Hynix Begins Mass Production of World's First 12-High HBM3E Memory with 36GB Capacity-3CGO

SK Hynix, the only company to develop and supply all five generations of HBM since its introduction in 2013, aims to meet the growing demand for AI memory solutions. The new 12-layer HBM3E pushes the boundaries of speed, capacity, and stability, meeting the highest global standards critical for AI applications. The memory operates at a record speed of 9.6 Gbps, which allows a single GPU equipped with four HBM3E units to read the 70 billion parameters of Llama 3 70B large language model (LLM) 35 times per second.

To achieve this breakthrough, SK Hynix reduced the thickness of each DRAM chip by 40% and stacked them using TSV (Through-Silicon Via) technology, enhancing both capacity and thermal performance. The result is 50% more capacity in the same form factor with 10% better heat dissipation, ensuring greater stability and reliability.