Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced plans to expand its NAND flash production capacity in Pyeongtaek, Korea, reinforcing the company’s ability to meet demands from emerging technologies. Construction, which began this May, will pave the way for mass production of Samsung’s cutting-edge V-NAND memory in the second half of 2021.

“The new investment reaffirms our commitment to sustain undisputed leadership in memory technologies, even in uncertain times,” said Cheol Choi, executive vice president of Memory Global Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue to serve the market with the most optimized solutions available, while contributing to growth of the overall IT industry and the economy in general.”

In the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution fueled by artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and 5G expansion, the added capacity will play a major role in helping to address mid- to long-term demands for NAND flash memory. As digital lifestyles become more prevalent, Samsung will continue to be proactive in making new investments in order to seize future market opportunities.

Samsung’s NAND flash production network extends from Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek in Korea to Xi’an, China. Established in 2015, Samsung’s Pyeongtaek Campus is a hub for next-generation memory technologies, consisting of two of the world’s largest-scale production lines.

Leveraging its significant edge in manufacturing and technology, Samsung has held the leadership position in NAND flash memory for the past 18 years, with one recent innovation being the industry-first sixth-generation (1xx-layer) V-NAND introduced last July. Through balanced investment across its global sites, Samsung aims to maintain a robust production network that will further cement its market leadership.

Reference: Samsung V-NAND Mass Production Timeline

“Fellow” is the highest grade awarded by the IEEE, and is conferred by the institute’s Board of Directors when a person demonstrates an outstanding record of accomplishment in any of the IEEE’s fields of interest. The total number of fellows selected in any one year cannot exceed 0.1 percent of the organization’s total voting membership.

Dr. Liu is Vice President and Chief Scientist at Samsung’s Montreal AI Center. He develops novel AI solutions for real-world applications like the intelligent automation of 5G networks and has made tremendous contributions to performance and power management advancements in the areas of computing and networking systems.

In his work, Dr. Liu applies insights from a wide range of disciplines, including feedback control, optimization, and machine learning, to lead research in the fields of performance and power management of data centers and networked servers. This line of pioneering research, which helps complex systems adapt to highly dynamic workloads and diverse conditions, has influenced many subsequent research efforts in both academia and industry.

“I am both honored and humbled to be granted the grade of IEEE Fellow,” said Dr. Liu, “I am grateful to my colleagues and the community members who have recognized my contributions, and will continue to devote myself to the development of the AI technologies that will enable intelligent systems to better complement people’s everyday lives.”

Dr. Liu received a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and M.E. in Automatic Control from Tsinghua University in 1996 and 1999 respectively, then completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006. He has been a professor of Computer Science at McGill University since 2007, and a William Dawson Scholar since 2014. Dr. Liu is a recipient of several awards, including the Mitacs Award for Exceptional Leadership – Professor from MITACS, the Outstanding Young Computer Science Researcher Award from the Canadian Association of Computer Science, and the Tomlinson Science Award from McGill University.

Other members of Samsung Electronics who have been named as IEEE Fellows in the past include: Vice Chairman, CEO and head of the Device Solutions Division Kinam Kim, Executive Vice President and Samsung Research New York AI Center head Daniel Lee, Senior Vice President and Head of the Advanced Communications Research Center Sunghyun Choi, Vice President Jianzhong (Charlie) Zhang of Samsung Research America (SRA), and Fellow Juho Lee of Samsung Research.

In line with its focus on next-generation NPU technologies, Samsung plans to create over 2,000 related jobs worldwide by 2030, which is about 10 times the current headcount. The company will also expand upon its existing collaboration with globally distinguished research institutes and universities, and support the nurturing of future talent in the field of AI, including deep learning and neural processing.

“For the coming age of AI, Samsung is committed to delivering industry-leading advancements brought to life by our NPU technologies,” said Inyup Kang, president of System LSI Business at Samsung Electronics. “As we leverage our differentiated technology, close partnerships with global institutes and active investment in top talent, we are excited to take future AI processing capabilities to the next level.”

Samsung introduced its first NPU in the company’s premium mobile processor, the Exynos 9820, last year and plans to continue offering advanced on-device AI features for high-performance mobile chips. Applications for Samsung’s NPUs will expand into areas such as automotive processors that power in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), as well as next-generation datacenters optimized for big data processing.

The System LSI Business and Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology — Samsung’s R&D arm — together plan to extend and evolve the company’s current NPU research into novel AI hardware technologies such as neuromorphic processors that aim to operate at the level of a human brain.