Samsung Electronics ships HBM4E chip samples to global customers

SEOUL, May 29 (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics said on Friday it has started shipping ‌samples of its latest high-bandwidth memory (HBM) ‌chip, or the 12-layer HBM4E, marking what it said ​was the industry's first shipment of such products.

The South Korean tech company said the new chip represents a more than 20% ‌increase in speed ⁠performance over its previous-generation HBM4 products.

Samsung said the chip uses its latest ⁠1c DRAM process technology, or sixth-generation 10-nanometer-class DRAM, alongside Samsung's 4-nanometer foundry logic base die.

The ​chipmaker said ​in April that ​it planned to ‌ship the first sample of HBM4E chips in the second quarter.

The move comes just three months after Samsung began shipping its HBM4 chips to customers in February, underscoring Samsung's ‌efforts to strengthen its ​position in the next-generation ​AI memory market ​by proactively supplying samples of ‌its latest products.

Samsung's customers ​include major AI ​players such as AMD, Nvidia and Google, among others, as demand surges for ​advanced memory ‌chips used in AI servers and ​processors.

(Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Jack ​Kim;Editing by Ed Davies)