Japan’s Advantest says AI demand boosting memory tester business

TOKYO : Japan’s Advantest mentioned on Wednesday booming query for excessive bandwidth reminiscence (HBM) historical for synthetic intelligence (AI) duties is boosting its reminiscence tester industry.

HBM, a fashion of excessive performance reminiscence where chips are stacked to keep residence and sever back energy consumption, is historical when processing the shipshape amount of recordsdata wanted for AI duties.

“Currently, HBM makes up roughly 50 per cent of our reminiscence testing industry and we explore that continuing within the advance-duration of time,” CEO Douglas Lefever mentioned in an interview.

Advantest, a manufacturer of chip testing tools, has been working with HBM because it was first produced in 2013 and is leveraging its relationship with reminiscence makers, Lefever mentioned.

The tools maker’s piece in reminiscence testers grew within the industry Twelve months ended March and it is forecasting 47 per cent growth in annual sales for the reminiscence section.

AI and the force to make stronger chip performance is leading to an increasing number of complex combos of gear, which require in depth testing to ascertain performance.

“This would presumably force the industry from the cloud, the guidelines centre … but then what’s no doubt going to turbocharge things will seemingly be when those edge applications advance out,” mentioned Lefever, who took up the submit in April.

Edge AI refers to doing AI duties on native devices in preference to in centralised recordsdata centres.

The electronics industry, which has been hit by at ease query for smartphones, tablets and PCs, hopes the adoption of AI substances will spur consumers to upgrade their devices.

“As these new devices advance out, there is pretty a pair of test mumble in them because they’re more complex,” mentioned Lefever.