Samsung Electronics announced a partnership with Japanese AI company Preferred Networks to supply advanced processors manufactured on the company’s 2nm-class process technology (possibly also known as SF3P) and packaged using its Interposer-Cube S 2.5D packaging technology, which are Preferred Networks’ own AI accelerators for data centers to use in upcoming projects.
The system-on-chip AI accelerator will be developed by Gaonchips, a South Korean chip contract design company that partners with Arm and others. Samsung has not revealed the specifications or target performance of the processor it will produce for Preferred Networks, but the use of its Interposer-Cube S 2.5D packaging technology will enable it to build multi-chiplet designs with HBM memory. Furthermore, a joint press release from the two companies suggests that they may be working on a multi-chiplet project.
Samsung plans to begin mass production of chips on its SF2 manufacturing process in 2025. The node targets smartphones and high-performance computing applications, and is well suited for multi-chiplet AI solutions for data centers.
“We are pleased to lead the way in AI accelerator technology with Samsung Electronics’ 2nm GAA process,” said Junichiro Makino, vice president of Computing Architecture and chief technology officer (CTO) at Preferred Networks. “This solution greatly supports Preferred Networks’ ongoing efforts to build energy-efficient, high-performance computing hardware that meets the ever-increasing computing demands from generative AI technologies, especially large-scale language models.”
Preferred Networks aims to develop vertically integrated solutions spanning hardware, software, AI models, and supercomputers, so it’s not surprising that the company wants to build its own custom silicon processors for the AI supply chain. What’s a bit surprising is that Samsung and Preferred Networks decided to keep this collaboration public at all, as chip owners typically prefer not to reveal their foundry partners.
“This order is a crucial validation that Samsung’s 2nm GAA process technology and advanced packaging technology are the ideal solution for next-generation AI accelerators,” said Tae-jun Song, corporate vice president and head of the foundry business development team at Samsung Electronics. “We work closely with our customers to ensure that the high performance and low power consumption characteristics of our products are fully realized.”
