Rambus has just unveiled a groundbreaking innovation in the world of high-performance computing – the industry’s first HBM4 controller IP. This controller is poised to revolutionize next-generation AI workloads by enabling a new era of HBM memory deployments.
The Rambus HBM4 controller is a game-changer for cutting-edge AI accelerators, graphics, and HPC applications. It fully supports the JEDEC specification of 6.4Gbps, allowing for operations up to 10Gbps and a staggering throughput of 2.56TB/sec per memory device. This remarkable performance unlocks unparalleled processing capabilities, allowing developers to push the boundaries of what’s possible in AI and high-performance computing.
The Rambus HBM4 controller IP is designed to seamlessly integrate with third-party or customer PHY solutions, simplifying the process of building complete HBM4 memory subsystems. This flexibility empowers developers to tailor their memory solutions to their specific requirements, fostering innovation and enhancing overall system performance.
The significance of this technology is underscored by the industry’s response. Neeraj Paliwal, SVP and general manager of Silicon IP at Rambus, emphasizes the growing need to overcome memory bandwidth and capacity bottlenecks as AI workloads become increasingly complex. “With Large Language Models (LLMs) now exceeding a trillion parameters and continuing to grow, overcoming bottlenecks in memory bandwidth and capacity is mission-critical to meeting the real-time performance requirements of AI training and inference. As the leading silicon IP provider for AI 2.0, we are bringing the industry’s first HBM4 Controller IP solution to the market to help our customers unlock breakthrough performance in their state-of-the-art processors and accelerators,” said Paliwal.
Arif Khan, senior group director of protocol IP marketing at Cadence, highlights the critical role of HBM IP in enabling the scalability and performance required by modern computing architectures. “As heterogenous compute architectures are implemented at an ever-increasing scale to support a wide range of workloads with tremendous amounts of data movement, it is essential that the HBM IP ecosystem continues to extend performance and deliver interoperable solutions to meet the growing needs of customers. We are pleased to see Rambus offer an interoperable HBM4 Controller IP solution to support the ecosystem alongside Cadence’s leadership in HBM PHY and solutions performance once the industry transition to this new generation of HBM memory begins,” said Khan.
Samsung Electronics, a leader in memory technology, also recognizes the transformative potential of HBM4. “HBM4 will represent a major advancement in memory technology for generative AI and other HPC applications. The availability of HBM4 IP solutions will be critical to paving the path for widespread HBM4 adoption in the market and Samsung looks forward to collaborating closely with Rambus and the wider ecosystem to develop new HBM4 solutions for the AI era,” said Jongshin Shin, executive vice president and head of Foundry IP Ecosystem at Samsung Electronics.
Siemens Digital Industries Software also acknowledges the importance of pre-validated IP solutions in streamlining the semiconductor design process. “In today’s complex and fast-paced semiconductor design landscape, pre-validated IP solutions are key to achieving first-time silicon success. Rambus and Siemens have a long-standing and successful collaboration to help our mutual customers meet their product and business goals, and we look forward to working together to deliver a new generation of best-in-class Rambus HBM4 memory controllers verified with Siemens’ high-quality Verification IP,” said Abhi Kolpekwar, vice president and general manager, Digital Verification Technology division, Siemens Digital Industries Software.
Shane Rau, Research VP for Computing Semiconductors at IDC, emphasizes the critical role of HBM in enabling the future of AI. “HBM is a key enabling technology for AI because AI processors and accelerators need high-performance, high-density memory for the massive computational requirements of AI workloads. As AI processors and accelerators advance, they will need HBM to advance, too. Seeing HBM4 IP in the market now is a key enabling building block that will be ready for designers working on cutting-edge AI hardware,” said Rau.
Rambus’ introduction of the HBM4 controller IP marks a significant step forward in the development of AI and high-performance computing. This groundbreaking technology is poised to drive innovation, accelerate performance, and unlock new possibilities for the future of computing.
