Samsung Continues to blaze the Trail in Advancements of AI in Semiconductor Design

Samsung Continues to blaze the Trail in Advancements of AI in Semiconductor Design

Samsung now is a world-class semiconductor manufacturer, providing memory chips and cutting-edge processors for mobile devices, laptop and desktop computers, servers, and other electronics. Samsung has focused on the utilization of artificial intelligence to significantly enhance the development of chips in the recent past. Semiconductor complex reflects how the company applies AI in multiple stages of semiconductor research and production and it is a perfect example of how AI can boost efficiency and creativity in one of the most challenging and competitive industries.

Samsung has been heavily investing into using artificial intelligence, particularly in the context of chip floor planning – which refers to the determination of how the numerous circuits and components will be placed in a die. Chip floorplanning has become increasingly complicated with the increasing number of transistors placed in a single chip to 10 billion and beyond. This extensive complexity cannot be overseen by a human chip designer and probably cannot predict the best floorplans that respect every constraint. This is the area I believe AI should excel at. Smartphone chip designs that Samsung Electronics uses in its products, such as the Exynos smartphone processor, are now using AI to create floorplans instead of just being manually done. The AI factors such as power consumption and yield rate and performance to recommend the floor plan that should be better than the best known human design. 

Samsung has provided information regarding their AI floorplanning approaches stating that it has the level of detail that is equal to a design made 100 human engineers working for 3 months. The AI floorplanner is capable of simulating through as many layouts per day as a human can in a lifetime. This both saves significant amount of engineers to work on this additional extra design and also brings tangible benefits in terms of chip area of 10% less and 10% performance gain. But chip floor planning is just one of the physical design steps in the overall chip design process that Samsung’s artificial intelligence tools now help with.

In the manufacturing aspect, Samsung uses AI for important functions such as metrology; the process of measuring minuscule chip structures that must not pose any defects once it is produced in their behemoth facilities worth billions. The smaller the process node of the devices, we are talking about here, the more critical any inconsistencies – even those only a few nanometers in size – can make chips useless. The newer AI image recognition algorithms enable machines to detect these defects more quickly and accurately than human inspectors who are viewing the parts through microscopes. It also oversees equipment status in all the Samsung’s fabs around the world, including predicting possible maintenance requirements to prevent having equipment taken out of service. 

It is also brainstorming for other ways of involving the incorporation of AI in its core hardware devices for the purpose of integration. The Samsung Exynos i13 processor has the capability of including a dedicated AI accelerator that enhances neural network inferencing eight times faster than AI software. This makes it possible for instance smartphones at the edge provide real-time Artificial Intelligence services as a means to improve security, photography among others. Samsung stresses that they have acted resilient with this AI silicon designed to support open standards which are critical for the growth of robust developer communities around new specific hardware.

Samsung has more than 1,000 employees that focus on AI, and the tech giant has published over 100 papers regarding AI in semiconductors alone, indicating it has no intention of backing off from the race to AI semiconductor leadership. Despite the current and potential competition, Samsung’s talent and resources will make it difficult for competitors and even partners to compete with its R&D in this vital area. Thus Samsung is persistently pushing the envelope when it comes to AI and machine learning and collaboration between young AI talents and chip industry legends is simply the way forward in one of the most saturated fields of technology. High-value AI applications like hyper-efficient chip designs or perfect manufacturing will only strengthen Samsung’s manufacturing advantage in the future. Therefore, in the near and distant future, enterprises, clients, and consumers who require the best semiconductor technology to run their businesses and homes will continue to reap the rewards of the fantastic innovations that Samsung’s semiconductor AI division ought to usher in.