Taiwanese memory chipmaker Nanya Technology (Nanya) has reportedly entered Nvidia's supply chain by delivering low-power DRAM chips, according to reports on the 28th.
Taiwan's United Daily News (UDN) and others reported the same day that Nanya will supply products for Nvidia's next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Bera Rubin. According to the reports, Nvidia selected Nanya as one of the suppliers of LPDDR5X, a low-power DRAM used in Bera Rubin.
Bera Rubin is characterized by boosting performance by bundling 72 Rubin graphics processing units (GPUs) and 36 Bera central processing units (CPUs) into a single rack. The Bera CPU is equipped with SoCAM2, a memory module tailored for AI chips that uses LPDDR5X. LPDDR standards have advanced in the order of 1, 2, 3, 4, 4X, 5, and 5X, and SoCAM2 is a product modified for server environments using the latest model with the goal of mounting it on next-generation AI chips.
The main suppliers of SoCAM2 are Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Industry observers say Nvidia added Nanya to address supply instability and gain leverage in price negotiations. There is also speculation that Nanya may start supplying Nvidia not as a mass supplier but in a backup role.
Nanya had not produced LPDDR, which is challenging to manufacture, until now. However, UDN reported that Taiwan's largest foundry, TSMC, supported Nanya in optimizing semiconductor packaging processes and other areas, which dramatically improved LPDDR quality. UDN said, "Nanya's participation in Nvidia's supply chain is a symbolic achievement that shows the Taiwanese semiconductor industry's technology has entered a new stage."