Samsung CEO Predicts ‘Pseudo Human Brain’ by 2020

One day, electronic memory speed, logic speed and processing capability may match the levels of the human brain. Chang-Gyu Hwang, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics' Semiconductor Business, thinks this capability will come soon. During a keynote speech at this week’s IEDM conference in San Francisco, Hwang said, “The pseudo human brain will be available in 2020.” Hwang inspired the 1500-plus audience members with bold predictions as well as interesting specifics about the direction for perhaps today’s most aggressive semiconductor company. Among the technologies he highlighted were the imminent replacement of hard drives with NAND flash, which will allow boot times on PCs to shorten from ~50 seconds to only 10 seconds. The company will roll out more stacked memories, including an interesting new 3-D stack for SRAMs that minimizes litho steps and enables blazing processing speeds. He also talked about an end to industry cycles. Hwang’s overall theme was that we are entering the fusion era where individual technologies (memory, logic, MEMS, image sensors, biochips, and even software) will be combined to meet the needs of a multimedia, wireless society. We have gone through the PC-centric era, and are now in the mobile consumer era. Around 2010, developments will be predominantly in the information technology and media communications arenas. Going into 2020, the emphasis will be more on humanoid and bioscience capabilities to enhance the quality of life.