By Sanam Masroor, Director, Global Strategic Partnerships
Today, Intel Corp. announced a collaboration with SoftBank Corp. subsidiary SAIMEMORY to develop a novel memory technology called the Z-Angle Memory (ZAM) program. The collaboration focuses on next generation memory technologies that will support the growing demands of AI and high-performance computing.
SAIMEMORY, a Tokyo-based subsidiary of telecommunication and IT operator SoftBank Corp., is developing a stacked DRAM architecture that surpasses today’s high bandwidth memory standards. The technology is designed to significantly increase the memory capacity, significantly lower power consumption, and advance packaging capabilities that alleviate critical bottlenecks in scaling AI systems.
Intel will serve as a technology, innovation, and standards collaborator, and SAIMEMORY will provide technology, innovation, and lead commercialization of ZAM. Operations are targeted to begin in Q1 2026, with prototypes in 2027 and commercialization by 2030.
The SAIMEMORY technology stack builds on foundational work supported by the Advanced Memory Technology (AMT) R&D Program, managed by the U.S. Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration through the Sandia National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Intel’s early AMT-funded development contributed key proof points and performance validation to the stacked DRAM concept. Intel also advanced the Next Generation DRAM Bonding initiative, demonstrating higher DRAM density and bandwidth with lower latency and energy consumption.
“Intel’s Next Generation DRAM Bonding (NGDB) initiative has demonstrated a novel memory architecture and revolutionary assembly methodology that significantly increases DRAM performance, reduces power consumption, and optimizes memory costs,” said Dr. Joshua Fryman, Intel Fellow and CTO of Intel Government Technologies. “Standard memory architectures aren’t meeting AI needs, so NGDB defined a whole new approach to accelerate us through the next decade.”
Intel will leverage these AMT and NGDB learnings to support the ZAM program with SAIMEMORY. The transition from AMT to ZAM strengthens trusted U.S. and Japan technology partnerships and accelerates the path from national laboratory research to global deployment.