How did the company maintain its leadership position in this market, and what lessons did it implement from developing the previous generations of HBM products?<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d18r0a86za96sg.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/27174406\/History-of-HBM-developmentThumbnail.png\")
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HBM1 \u2013 First Mover from the Get-go<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhen HBM was developed as a memory solution optimized for high-level computing performance (HCP), it offered a new paradigm on solving the memory bottleneck as it aimed to increase capacity and bandwidth simultaneously. SK hynix jointly developed the world\u2019s first TSV (Through Silicon Via) HBM product with AMD in 2014. The two companies also teamed up to develop high-bandwidth 3-D stacked memory technologies and related products<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\nHBM1\u2019s operating frequency is around 1,600 Mbps, the VDD (drain power voltage) is 1.2V, and the die density is 2Gb (4-hi)<\/span><\/a>. The product had a higher bandwidth than the DDR4 and GDDR5 products<\/span><\/a>, while using less power in a substantially smaller form factor, benefitting bandwidth-hungry processors such as GPUs (graphics processing units).<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\n<\/div>\nHBM2 \u2013 Second Generation Home Improvements<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nIn the second generation HBM2, released in 2018, a key improvement was the Pseudo Channel mode.\u00a0 This mode divides a channel into two separate 64-bit I\/O sub-channels, as well as providing 128-bit prefetch per memory read and write access for each sub-channel. The mode optimizes memory accesses and lowers latency, resulting in higher effective bandwidth.<\/p>\n
Other improvements included lane remapping modes for both hard and soft repairs of lanes, as well as anti-overheating protection. The newer technologies, alongside HBM2\u2019s higher effective bandwidth, give it a higher energy efficiency than HBM1 at its data-rate.<\/p>\n
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\n\n<\/div>\nHBM2E \u2013 Round Three Game Changer<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSK hynix was also the first memory vendor to begin mass producing HBM2E<\/span><\/a>, an extended version of HBM2. The HBM2E development team\u2019s determination to raise the product\u2019s specifications at the planning stage<\/span><\/a> played a critical role in helping SK hynix to maintain its leadership position. The product was released two years after HBM2 in 2020, with technological updates and more applications, as well as a faster speed and higher capacity than HBM2.<\/p>\nThe product\u2019s 16Gb die density was double that of HBM2<\/span><\/a>, achieved by vertically stacking eight 16Gb chips via TSV technology. At the time of its release, HBM2E had the industry\u2019s fastest memory at 3.6Gbps in I\/O speed and processing 460GB of data per second using 1,024 I\/Os<\/span><\/a>. HBM2E also has 36% better heat dissipation than HBM2.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\n<\/div>\nHBM3 \u2013 Maintaining Leadership into the Fourth Generation<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSK hynix continued maintaining its leadership status with HBM3<\/span><\/a>, which was the world\u2019s first of its kind when the company developed it in 2021. HBM3 has 1.5 times HBM2E\u2019s capacity from 12 DRAM die stacked to the same total package height, enabling it to power capacity-intensive applications such as AI and HPC.<\/p>\nA significant addition in HBM3 compared to previous generations is a custom-designed on-die ECC (Error Correcting Code)<\/span><\/a>, which uses pre-allocated parity bits to check and correct errors in the data received. The code also allows DRAM to self-correct errors within cells, enhancing device reliability.<\/p>\n
When HBM was developed as a memory solution optimized for high-level computing performance (HCP), it offered a new paradigm on solving the memory bottleneck as it aimed to increase capacity and bandwidth simultaneously. SK hynix jointly developed the world\u2019s first TSV (Through Silicon Via) HBM product with AMD in 2014. The two companies also teamed up to develop high-bandwidth 3-D stacked memory technologies and related products<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n HBM1\u2019s operating frequency is around 1,600 Mbps, the VDD (drain power voltage) is 1.2V, and the die density is 2Gb (4-hi)<\/span><\/a>. The product had a higher bandwidth than the DDR4 and GDDR5 products<\/span><\/a>, while using less power in a substantially smaller form factor, benefitting bandwidth-hungry processors such as GPUs (graphics processing units).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In the second generation HBM2, released in 2018, a key improvement was the Pseudo Channel mode.\u00a0 This mode divides a channel into two separate 64-bit I\/O sub-channels, as well as providing 128-bit prefetch per memory read and write access for each sub-channel. The mode optimizes memory accesses and lowers latency, resulting in higher effective bandwidth.<\/p>\n Other improvements included lane remapping modes for both hard and soft repairs of lanes, as well as anti-overheating protection. The newer technologies, alongside HBM2\u2019s higher effective bandwidth, give it a higher energy efficiency than HBM1 at its data-rate.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n SK hynix was also the first memory vendor to begin mass producing HBM2E<\/span><\/a>, an extended version of HBM2. The HBM2E development team\u2019s determination to raise the product\u2019s specifications at the planning stage<\/span><\/a> played a critical role in helping SK hynix to maintain its leadership position. The product was released two years after HBM2 in 2020, with technological updates and more applications, as well as a faster speed and higher capacity than HBM2.<\/p>\n The product\u2019s 16Gb die density was double that of HBM2<\/span><\/a>, achieved by vertically stacking eight 16Gb chips via TSV technology. At the time of its release, HBM2E had the industry\u2019s fastest memory at 3.6Gbps in I\/O speed and processing 460GB of data per second using 1,024 I\/Os<\/span><\/a>. HBM2E also has 36% better heat dissipation than HBM2.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n SK hynix continued maintaining its leadership status with HBM3<\/span><\/a>, which was the world\u2019s first of its kind when the company developed it in 2021. HBM3 has 1.5 times HBM2E\u2019s capacity from 12 DRAM die stacked to the same total package height, enabling it to power capacity-intensive applications such as AI and HPC.<\/p>\n A significant addition in HBM3 compared to previous generations is a custom-designed on-die ECC (Error Correcting Code)<\/span><\/a>, which uses pre-allocated parity bits to check and correct errors in the data received. The code also allows DRAM to self-correct errors within cells, enhancing device reliability.<\/p>\nHBM2 \u2013 Second Generation Home Improvements<\/h3>\n
HBM2E \u2013 Round Three Game Changer<\/h3>\n
HBM3 \u2013 Maintaining Leadership into the Fourth Generation<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d18r0a86za96sg.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/27174411\/History-of-HBM-development.png\")
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