What you’re looking at is the new HBM module that will be installed on your future graphics cards.
Guys over at Hardwareluxx and Fudzilla took part in SK Hynix presentation of High-Bandwidth-Memory during GTC2015.
Fiji with HBM1, Pascal with HBM2
For the first time Hynix has shown off a single 1GB HBM1 module and even a whole HBM2 wafer. HBM2 is not expected this year, as this technology is still under development. It is said that the first architecture to benefit from HBM2 is NVIDIA’s Pascal.
The HBM1 however, is already being made, and the first manufacturer to utilize the power of new memory technology is AMD. Radeon R9 390X and R9 390 are said to be the first graphics cards to feature HBM instead of GDDR5 modules.
Did you know it’s almost 7 years since the first GDDR5 graphics card came out? (Well now you know, it was Radeon HD 4870).
The first generation HBM will allow much greater speeds compared to GDDR5. The four layer stack, also known as 4-Hi, will pack either 1GB or 2GB capacity. The eight layer stacks (8 Hi) are also planned.
The HBM2 will double the bandwidth and density. So theoretically 4 stacks will allow 32GB of memory to be installed on interposer. This is how Pascal will achieve 30+ GB capacities as shown yesterday during roadmap reveal by the CEO of NVIDIA.
Volta will likely introduce 8 Hi stacks, doubling the capacity. Below you can see the slides from yesterday’s presentation, and a comparison of HBM1 and HBM2 to older technologies.
Source: Hardwareluxx, Fudzilla
