Samsung to build Nvidia NVHBM base dies on TSMC 3nm, dropping turnkey model
The Seoul Economic Daily reported that Nvidia has asked all three NVHBM suppliers — Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron — to make the base die on TSMC's 3nm process, with memory dies standardized on the 1c sixth-generation DRAM node. Samsung's Device Solutions division agreed after an internal review, the first time it has given up its turnkey model of making both core and base dies in-house for an HBM product. Samsung keeps the turnkey approach with its own 4nm base dies for standard HBM4 and HBM4E and for custom HBM sold to other customers including AMD, while evaluating whether its own foundry could make the NVHBM base die as a hedge against TSMC capacity limits. Nvidia says NVHBM offers up to 30% more bandwidth and 15% less power than standard HBM4E, figures attributed to the company.
Per the reports, a common TSMC 3nm base die lets Nvidia skip separate validation for each supplier, saving engineering resources and speeding product introduction, and marks the first Samsung-TSMC collaboration on HBM.