Seoul, South Korea – Samsung Electronics unveiled a next-generation architecture that stacks memory vertically on top of AI chips.
This aims to push the boundaries of performance and power efficiency for AI semiconductors.
The announcement was made by Kim Kyung-ryun, senior vice president of the company’s DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) Development Division,
during a keynote presentation at the Memory Summit (FMS 2026). The event was held at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California on the 4th of this month.
Solving data bottlenecks and improving energy efficiency
The “zHBM” architecture employs a radically different approach from the traditional method of placing high-bandwidth memory (HBM)
next to the AI accelerator (xPU). Instead, it stacks the memory directly above the AI accelerator.
The inclusion of the “z” in the name signifies the utilization of the third dimension of height (the Z-axis), bypassing the traditional width and length dimensions (the X and Y axes).
Samsung explained that this design reduces the data transfer distance between the processor and memory.
Therefore, it helps resolve data bottlenecks and maximizes bandwidth and power efficiency.
A huge leap in performance and thermal control
Compared to previous generations, the zHBM system—even compared to the next-generation HBM5—offers significant improvements. It boosts performance per GPU by up to 8 times and triples power output.
In terms of thermal management, the new technology reduces thermal resistance by 10% to 25% compared to HBM5. This translates to a reduction of more than half in thermal resistance.
zNAND-O solutions and 10th generation memory
In addition, Lee Jin-Yup, Vice President of the Flash Development Office, revealed the “zNAND-O” solution during his keynote address. It is a next-generation NAND solution specifically optimized for on-device AI environments.
The letter “z” represents vertical stacking, while the letter “O” stands for optimization for device use. This technology efficiently processes data by simultaneously addressing the limitations of DRAM capacity and the low bandwidth of current NAND memory.
Samsung also unveiled the industry’s first 10th-generation “V-NAND” memory, named “V10 BV-NAND”.
It comprises over 400 vertically stacked layers, demonstrating its commitment to meeting the growing demand for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure. This process relies on these advanced 3D technologies.
