KT, Samsung to cooperate in building S.Korean-style full stack AI

South Korea's KT Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. will pool their capabilities to build domestically developed full stack artificial intelligence (AI).

Full stack AI refers to the full range of related products and services from infrastructure such as AI semiconductors, software and cloud to AI application services. The goal is to boost the country's ecosystem for homegrown AI through the cooperation of both companies.

KT on Thursday said it signed a memorandum of understanding with Samsung Electronics and KT Cloud on cooperation in next-generation memory technology to build domestically developed full stack AI. They agreed to confirm Samsung Electronics' processing-in-memory (PIM) and processing-near-memory (PNM) chips through the use of KT's hyper-scale AI cloud infrastructure Mi:dm.

A PIM semiconductor adds computational processor technology to a memory chip whose original purpose is temporary data storage. A PNM model minimizes data transfer time by placing computing functions close to memory.

"Using PIM and PNM boosts calculation speed and can slash data transmission time with the central processing unit," a KT source said. "Samsung Electronics' technology will be of great help in resolving the memory bottleneck, or the problem of interrupted responses when using AI services."

Last month, KT commercialized a neural network processing unit optimized for AI operations with the domestic chip design company Rebellion. The telecom giant said combining its related know-ho with that of Samsung Electronics will drastically improve slow calculation speed and inefficient power consumption that occur in conventional AI infrastructure.

KT and Samsung Electronics will analyze the memory impact of hyperscale AI models, research AI chip platforms and cooperate in developing next-generation cloud solutions.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com