Sandisk and SK Hynix announce the High Bandwidth Flash (HBF) open specification that enables up to 512GB memory modules with 0.4 TB/s to 3.0 TB/s bandwidth
Anton Shilov /Tom's Hardware:
Context & Ripple Effects
SK Hynix brings established NAND manufacturing progress to the announcement: it had already moved to 238-layer 3D NAND at 2,400 MT/s, while Sandisk’s earlier work with HP targeted far faster storage chips. The joint specification turns that performance trajectory into a shared module-level proposal.
The move arrives alongside a separate race for high-bandwidth DRAM, where SK Hynix had begun mass production of 12-layer HBM3E and Samsung had introduced a higher-capacity HBM3E part. HBF therefore broadens the industry’s push to raise bandwidth and capacity across distinct memory tiers rather than treating memory as a single market.
First-order effects
- Sandisk and SK Hynix give system designers and prospective module makers an Open Compute Project-published HBF specification with defined capacity and bandwidth targets, rather than a proprietary product interface.
- The two companies position HBF as a common flash-module format spanning up to 512GB and 0.4 TB/s to 3.0 TB/s bandwidth.
Second-order effects
- Memory and system suppliers evaluating bandwidth bottlenecks now have a published flash-based option to assess alongside the HBM products being advanced by SK Hynix and Samsung, sharpening the distinction between memory tiers.
- An open specification shifts implementation work toward interoperability and module support, giving other vendors a clearer basis to decide whether to build compatible components or systems.
Third-order effects
- If suppliers adopt HBF beyond its two sponsors, memory competition will increasingly center on standardized system-level bandwidth interfaces as well as individual chip density and transfer rates.
- The parallel HBF and HBM efforts point to a more segmented memory stack, in which buyers match different high-bandwidth technologies to distinct capacity, performance, and system-design needs.
The trend: Memory suppliers are turning bandwidth gains in both flash and DRAM into system-level formats, making interface ecosystems a larger competitive lever.