Thread

Samsung is expected to more than double output of its HBM4 and HBM4E DRAM

562 points · 458 comments · giuliomagnifico

fooker · 1789929721 · focus · HN ↗
What's the main blocker (other than the current inflated cost) for using HBM instead of DRAM as the primary memory for consumer electronics?
1. nutjob2 · 1789930193 · focus · HN ↗
  Nothing except CPU manufacturer choices. Mac laptops use it and they're consumer products.
  People will have to get used to buying a fixed amount of RAM with their CPU but thats unlikely to be a problem.
  1. fooker · 1789930550 · focus · HN ↗
    Apple's "unified memory" marketing is so strong that even tech literate people seem to have this misconception!
    They have managed to pull this sort of thing off many many times. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_distortion_field" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_distortion_field
    Rohansi · 1789931691 · focus · HN ↗
    Yup, the only reason Macs have higher memory bandwidth is because they use more memory channels, which gives them a wider bus. Both Intel and AMD only allow more than dual channel memory on server class processors these days.
    Kon5ole · 1789932901 · focus · HN ↗
    The memory bandwidth is a small thing compared to the massive win you get by not having to move data between two memory pools at all.
    Rohansi · 1789933929 · focus · HN ↗
    Depends on your workload. And AMD has supported unified memory long before Apple Silicon existed anyway.

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