Amid the fierce competition for next-generation semiconductor leadership, Korea Eureka Day, a venue for exchanges between European academia, industry, and research institutes, has provided an opportunity to share cutting-edge innovative technologies and knowledge, including AI semiconductors.

2023 Korea Eureka Day was held on the 30th at Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Seoul.

This event, held to expand the international technology cooperation network with Europe and to discover international joint research partners and derive collaborative tasks between global industries, academia, and research institutes, included sessions on future industry ideas such as semiconductors, advanced mobility, and next-generation energy, as well as country sessions.

Professor Gong Jun-jin of Samsung Electronics' College of Engineering, who gave the keynote speech, singled out the following semiconductor innovations that made the current advancements in AI and machine learning possible: △development of special chips, △use of neuromorphic computing, and △advances in semiconductor manufacturing.

While semiconductor innovation and demand are concentrated in the existing mobile, wearable, and data center industries, in the coming era, leadership in the supply of next-generation semiconductor technology in the fields of △5G △IoT △automotive △AI and robotics is becoming more important than ever.

Industry megatrends surrounding semiconductors demand faster data processing speeds and more memory capacity and bandwidth. Professor Gong explained, “Today’s GPT-3 has 175 billion parameters and was trained for four months with 1,024 GPUs.” He added, “GPT-4 is expected to have trillions of parameters, so it will inevitably require high-speed processors and high-capacity memory.”

He mentioned that heterogeneous integrated packaging is rapidly emerging, and chiplets and 3D packaging are receiving attention for achieving Moore's law in terms of the three elements of performance, power, and area. The memory industry is preparing to respond with HBM solutions and petabyte-level high-capacity SSDs.

With the increasing demand for AI semiconductors centered on GPUs, the continuous PPA challenges such as high bandwidth requirements in advanced memory, shortened wiring, and in-memory are becoming major considerations in the industry.

In his opening remarks, Min Byeong-ju, president of the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology, said, “Domestic companies are participating in Eureka to pursue technological cooperation with Europe, which is leading international standards and cutting-edge technology,” and added, “I hope that this will become a venue for sharing the latest research trends in Korea and Europe and for cooperation between academia, industry, and research at home and abroad.”

“Eureka has demonstrated the power of international cooperation, contributing to the development of cutting-edge technologies, products and services, and enriching economic development and collective knowledge and understanding,” said Ismail Doan, Chairman of the Eureka Network. “The initiatives that emerge from the Eureka Network will show limitless potential when working together internationally.”