[Tech Day 2022] Opening the Intelligent Mobility Future

From the invention of PCs to smartphones, to the growth of data centers and cloud services, the world has rapidly changed in recent years. Seemingly, each wave of change has been driven by technological innovations capable of producing exponential amounts of data. For the automotive industry in particular, the next wave of change has already arrived through the emergence of intelligent mobility. Read on to learn more about how Samsung is providing the automotive industry with solutions needed to reimagine transportation. The rise of the ‘server on wheels’ By “intelligent mobility,” we are referring to how cars can now utilize technologies spanning from autonomous driving, hyperconnectivity, AI and machine learning, to electrification. This notion also includes memory solutions for vehicles that move cargo, such as drones and urban air mobility aircraft. Intelligent mobility’s rise has been so significant that the demand for memory in the auto industry is on track to surpass PCs by 2034 and reach the level of server and cloud sectors by 2039. One key megatrend behind this rise is the fact that cars are becoming increasingly IT-friendly. They have become, in a sense, “servers on wheels.” There are four major reasons behind this change, with the first being the advancement of autonomous driving technology. Currently classified as being between levels 3 and 4 in terms of sophistication, autonomous driving technology requires an even higher level of AI computing – similar to AI services in cloud computing today. Specifically, reaching level 5 will require a 16-fold increase in memory capacity. Another reason for this change has been the evolution of system architectures. As self-driving cars grow more advanced, so too do their architectures. This has resulted in a shift from distributed to domain-centric, and then to zonal and shared architectures, creating a need for more computing power, memory and storage.

We are also seeing a shift from hardware-centric vehicle designs to software-centric ones, with more manufacturers incorporating over-the-air updates into the design stage. Lastly, thanks in part to their much faster build times, electric cars are rapidly replacing gas-powered cars on the road. This means that new memory models with higher specifications will need to be developed quickly in order to keep up with the transition to electric cars. Taking connectivity to the next gear The second megatrend behind the rise of intelligent mobility stems from the fact that vehicles are becoming smarter and more sophisticated than ever. In order for vehicles to operate at much higher levels of autonomy, more powerful systems will need to be developed to calculate advanced AI computations. For example, level 5 autonomous driving requires over 1,000 TOPS, and even that would be insufficient to provide user-customized AI services. This is not feasible relying on in-vehicle computations alone and may ultimately require dedicated automotive data centers. The last megatrend is increased connectivity. Put simply, vehicles have become more connected than ever – not only to the internet and local area networks, but to each other as well. This is where Samsung’s experience with developing leading mobile, server and cloud solutions is invaluable. The insights Samsung has gained from its 30 years of relevant experience – insights that have enabled it to achieve higher performance, lower power consumption, and smaller form factors – will form a solid foundation as we enter the intelligent mobility era. A trusted partner Drawing from years of experience leading and supporting the mobile, PC and server sectors, Samsung can offer customers a level of supply chain stability that can only be possible with a dedicated fab. With Samsung, customers enjoy the confidence that comes with knowing that their technologies reflect high levels of quality assurance – a critical factor in the automotive industry. This includes strict industry standards such as ISO and AEC-Q100. Samsung also maximizes its use of in-house total solutions to ensure that products are vertically optimized and efficiently integrated, and has dedicated teams to support rapid development cycles, customized products, and prompt troubleshooting. Samsung’s efforts and capabilities have enabled it to provide optimal solutions for a wide range of automotive applications, including IVI, AD, ADAS, Cluster, Telematics, and Gateway. Samsung has recorded no line-downs or supply issues for eight years running, is currently managing some 400 memory projects, and is mass producing memory products for more than 60 customers. Despite having operated in the sector for a relatively short time, Samsung has grown rapidly in the automotive space, with a 33% worldwide market share as of 2021. Encouraged by that success, the company has set its sights on becoming the leader in automotive memory by 2025.

Solutions for a new era of mobility As vehicles grow smarter and more digitized, Samsung’s next-generation memory solutions will facilitate a shift toward memory-centric computing. GDDR7, LPDDR5X, and Samsung’s automotive shared storage solution are three technologies that will be key to supporting this shift. Built for ultra-high bandwidth computing, Samsung’s automotive class GDDR7 enables packages to support up to 128 GB/s speeds using GPUs as accelerators for data processing. Connecting between four and eight GDDR7s to each GPU can support data transfer rates between 512 GB/s and 1 TB/s, satisfying vehicles’ fastest-growing data processing demands. One of the way to bolster that performance is by expanding IO interfaces with multiple LPDDR5X. To make this possible, Samsung developed LPDDR5X memory capable of supporting x64 IOs per package and reduced package size by more than 50 percent. This technology has already received JEDEC recognition, making it a leading standard for memory products with small form factors. Lastly, Samsung’s automotive shared storage solution, the APF SSD, addresses the need for shared storage to support automotive applications. The APF SSD offers three major benefits: it supports N:1 connectivity between multiple SoCs and a single SSD; it provides stable performance when facing heavy IO patterns from multiple hosts; and it supports the detachable form factor, E1.S.

Sharing Samsung’s Vision Samsung’s vision for the future is all about enabling people to experience truly boundless mobility and providing them with the time to freely enjoy it. With one cutting-edge solution after another, Samsung will continue to strive for the innovations the auto industry needs to make that vision a reality.