CES 2023: Samsung Electronics Showcases Cutting-edge Memory Semiconductor Solutions Set to Shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution

At CES 2023 in Las Vegas, NV January 5, visitors from around the world got a glimpse of the technology trends that’ll usher in the future. For Samsung, this was the opportunity to put on display the advanced memory and storage technologies that power those future devices.

The international Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the world’s largest home appliances and IT exhibition, held annually by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) in the U.S. since 1967. It’s where thousands of companies participate to demonstrate their latest products and innovative technologies.

Hosted at the Encore At Wynn Hotel (“Encore”), the Samsung Semiconductor Showcase exhibited the latest semiconductor products and their potential for innovative future applications to the invited guests.

With the advancements in technology constantly edging forward to answer the demands for tech that improves our daily lives, the role of semiconductors that support those technologies have become increasingly crucial; Memory semiconductors, in particular, have become ubiquitous and essential for everyday functionality.

From smartphones, TVs, computer to smart watches, visitors to the Samsung Semiconductor Showcase got to see, in-person, the cutting-edge memory products in tech that revolves around our lives today and prototypes that will help make our lives more convenient in the future.

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Memory Products Designed to Take on the Future

Despite the early call time of 8 a.m., the showcase was buzzing from the start with guests continuing steadily throughout the day. On display were products in Samsung‘s class-leading memory line-up, focusing not only on high performance but also high energy efficient memory. And taking the spotlight at the showcase was the DDR5 module and UFS 4.0 memory for mobile devices.

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DDR5 Module & UFS 4.0 Memory With Boundless Mobile Potential

DDR5, noted for its high-performance computing and AI applications, is the latest in the DRAM family of products. Classified by their high-speed and large-capacity data processing capability, the latest DDR5-based Samsung products include UDIMM for PCs and RDIMM for servers, which are modules made with 14nm process-based 24Gb DDR5 chips.

DDR5 UDIMM for PC boasts an impressive 48GB capacity, the highest among existing DDR5 modules for PC. Its large capacity and fast performance make UDIMM a suitable DRAM module for PC users who require fast data processing, 3D modeling, or gaming in high-resolution. Versatile as they are powerful, DDR5 UDIMM can also be used on workstations or entry level servers.

DDR5 RDIMM, the industry’s first 512GB-capacity server module, has doubled its performance and capacity while improving power efficiency by 30%, compared to that of the previous module. As such, it’s highly anticipated to contribute to the development of sustainable servers and data centers, cutting energy consumption while still delivering improved performance.

Samsung Electronics’ UFS 4.0 is a small-form, high-performance embedded chip that’s ideal for next-gen mobile applications. It delivers a sequential read speed of up to 4,200 MB/s and a sequential write speed of 2,800 MB/s. Also notable, its data transfer bandwidth reaches 23.3Gbps, which is double than that of the previous UFS 3.1 standard. Samsung’s UFS 4.0, with its small form factor, opens its uses, spanning smartphones, automotive semiconductors, and even metaverse devices in the future.

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Latest in Fast Data Processing SSD Products

Samsung Electronics’ latest high-performance SSD products, unveiled at Samsung Tech Day 2022, also made their way into the showcase.

Among the most notable was the PM1743, commonly used for large data volumes processing server environments, PM1743 is perfect for metaverse and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Based on the latest PCIe 5.0 standard, the PM1743 doubles the bandwidth of that of existing PCI 4.0 products and offers a 15.36TB max storage capacity that can deliver a fast sequential speed of 14,000MB/s. With approximately 40% improved power efficiency from previous generation products, it can significantly increase operational efficiency in servers and data centers, contributing greatly to reducing carbon emissions and energy use.

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State-of-the-art Memory Solutions for Exponential Data Processing

Leading-edge Processing-in-Memory (PIM) and Processing-near-Memory (PNM) technologies with support for hyper-scale AI models were also exhibited at CES. Processing-in-memory (PIM) is a technology that implements the processor’s data computing functions inside the memory. HBM-PIM solution using PIM technology is expected to cut energy use by nearly 50% while increasing performance by about twice as much, compared to the existing GPU accelerators without PIM technology.

PNM (Processing-near-Memory) technology also reduces data movement between CPU and memory by utilizing memory for data computation like PIM. The CXL-PNM technology recently developed by Samsung Semiconductor utilizes the CXL interface that facilitates efficient use of memory and capacity expansion. For applications such as recommendation systems that require high memory bandwidth or in-memory databases, performance improvements can be expected to be nearly doubled.

Samsung’s 512GB Memory Expander utilizing CXL interface also attracted a lot of attention from visitors. This advanced solution enables easy memory expandability to terabytes (TB) without the installation of an additional CPU in the server system, making it simple to dramatically increase bandwidth as data volume for processing continues to grow.

“Memory Expanders are designed to meet the demands for high data processing in currently trending applications such as AI and big data,” said Jun Kim, Computing New Biz Group at Memory Division. “We’re not only introducing the industry’s first 512GB memory expander capacity, but we’re aiming to build a next-gen memory ecosystem, exemplifying Samsung as a total solution provider for hardware and software”.

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Future Technology, For a More Sustainable Environment

The showcase also featured Samsung Semiconductor’s first ever sustainability zone at CES. Under the key slogan of, “Technology that makes technology sustainable,” the space introduced Samsung Semiconductor’s four main environmental goals as well as Samsung’s Regenerative Catalyst System (RCS), the technology targeted to set the environmental efforts into action.

Unique to the industry, RCS is Samsung Semiconductor’s specialized technology that increases Samsung’s greenhouse gas treatment rate by utilizing durable catalysts and raising the efficacy of gas treatment to 95%. Using RCS as a model, Samsung Semiconductor shared its vision for a cleaner, more environmentally sustainable future for the semiconductor industry.

Samsung Semiconductor also introduced Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) project as a part of the company’s sustainability efforts. LCA is used to minimize the environmental impact through the entire life cycle of a product, from raw materials extraction stage to production, application, and disposal.

Alongside detailed sustainability measures, Samsung also proudly displayed the industry’s awards it had received for its efforts. Recognized for the company’s sustainable practices, Samsung was the industry’s first recipient of the Product Carbon Footprint Certification and the Carbon Reduction Certification.

Samsung’s Semiconductor Technology Showcase offered CES attendees a glimpse into the future of the memory semiconductors and presented a blueprint to create a more sustainable semiconductor industry.

The semiconductor market has seen a significant rise recently, and that growth is projected to continue as sectors like automotive, AI and data centers gain more momentum. Powering those industries will require highly advanced and efficient semiconductors, sustainably produced. Samsung is dedicated to continuing to innovate, to creating technologies that better meet our customers’ needs.