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.
    kstrauser · 1789932140 · focus · HN ↗
    The “Apple only does X better because they do Y” thing has been a meme for ages. I remember dismissals like “PowerPC is only faster at math because it has more integer units” or something along those lines, and thinking, uh, isn’t that a good thing?
    Dylan16807 · 1790000992 · focus · HN ↗
    The point is that "unified architecture" is a buzzword unrelated to what actually makes things fast.
    Rohansi · 1790006615 · focus · HN ↗
    It does make some things faster because you can share memory between CPU, GPU, etc. without copying. But not everything.

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.