SK hynix Inc. and Sandisk Corporation have announced the start of a global standardization process for High Bandwidth Flash (HBF), a next-generation memory solution aimed at supporting artificial intelligence (AI) inference infrastructure. The announcement was made during the ‘HBF Spec. Standardization Consortium Kick-Off’ event held at Sandisk’s headquarters in Milpitas, California.
The two companies will establish a dedicated workstream under the Open Compute Project (OCP), an open data center technology initiative, to drive the standardization of HBF technology. According to SK hynix, “By making HBF an industry standard, together with Sandisk, we will lay the foundation for the entire AI ecosystem to grow together. A dedicated workstream under OCP1 will be launched with Sandisk to begin standardization work.”
As AI applications move from model training to inference—where services are delivered directly to users—the need for fast and efficient memory solutions is increasing. Existing memory structures face challenges in balancing high-capacity data processing with power efficiency during this stage. HBF is designed as a new memory layer positioned between high bandwidth memory (HBM) and solid-state drives (SSD). This intermediate layer aims to combine the performance of HBM with the capacity of SSDs, supporting both scalability and power efficiency required by AI systems.
Industry projections suggest that demand for complex memory solutions like HBF will rise around 2030 as AI systems become more sophisticated and require greater optimization across CPUs, GPUs, and memory components.
SK hynix and Sandisk plan to leverage their experience in design, packaging, and mass production of HBM and NAND technologies as they push forward with HBF’s standardization and commercialization efforts.
Ahn Hyun, President and Chief Development Officer at SK hynix, stated: “The key to AI infrastructure is to go beyond the performance competition of individual technologies and to optimize the entire ecosystem. Through HBF technology standardization the company will establish a cooperative system and present an AI-era optimized memory architecture to create new value for customers and partners.”
SK hynix Inc., based in Korea, supplies DRAM and NAND flash chips globally. Its shares are traded on the Korea Exchange while its Global Depository shares are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
