The Korea Herald

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Samsung rolls out chips for self-driving cars

By Son Ji-hyoung

Published : Dec. 16, 2021 - 15:42

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A promotional image showing the newest lineup of Samsung Electronics‘ automotive memory products unveiled Thursday. (Samsung Electronics) A promotional image showing the newest lineup of Samsung Electronics‘ automotive memory products unveiled Thursday. (Samsung Electronics)
Samsung Electronics said Thursday it has begun mass-producing cutting-edge memory chips for an undisclosed auto manufacturer to power a range of connected features including autonomous driving.

The newest lineup of chips includes 2-gigabyte GDDR6 graphic dynamic random access memory chips, as well as 128-gigabyte universal flash storage. Both products are designed to support autonomous driving features, including advanced driver assistance systems. Samsung unveiled the industry‘s first universal flash storages for self-driving cars in 2017.

Moreover, Samsung unveiled an enhanced lineup for in-vehicle infotainment systems.

Of them, 256-gigabyte ball grid array solid-state drives read seven times faster write twice as fast as their predecessors, embedded MultiMediaCards. Moreover, its 2-gigabyte GDDR6 graphic DRAM -- which could be used both for car infotainment and for autonomous driving – features a data rate of up to 14 gigabits per second per pin. Both products are used for servers and artificial intelligence-powered accelerators.

The latest technology will better support complex processing of multimedia applications and autonomous driving data for an improved connected car driving experience, Samsung said in a statement.

“With the recent proliferation of electric vehicles and the rapid advancement of infotainment and autonomous driving systems, the semiconductor automotive platform is facing a paradigm shift,” said Han Jin-man, executive vice president who leads Memory Global Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics.

Han added the replacement cycle of chips is now being shortened, raising the need for requirements for automobile memory solutions to deliver server-class performance.

All new automotive memory solutions have met the AEC-Q100 qualification, enabling a stable operation in extreme temperatures ranging from minus 40 degrees Celsius to 105 degrees Celsius, and completed customer evaluations, according to Samsung.