[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics and German software giant SAP on Sept. 29 opened a joint research and development center which will focus on the next-generation in-memory database platform.

The in-memory database is a database management system that enables faster data access by storing data in main memories instead of hard disks.

Jun Young-hyun, chief of Samsung’s memory business, and Adaire Fox-Martin, head of SAP Asia-Pacific, participated in the opening ceremony of the center in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. 

The R&D center, consisting of server rooms and office facilities for researchers, and will begin operations from next month.

The collaboration came after the two counterparts agreed last year to work together to develop in-memory platform SAP HANA, aimed at developing super-fast, large-capacity memory chips and in-memory technology.

The two companies will allow global SAP HANA customers to test run the platform at the center.

Equipped with 20-nanometer 128-gigabyte DRAM chips stacking cells vertically, the data servers at the center can deploy up to 24 terabyte memories for SAP HANA.

Samsung said it would soon beef up the capability of the platform by utilizing 3-D 10nm-class 256 DRAM chips.

“Samsung will try to maintain the lead in the large-capacity memory market by advancing memory tech,” Jun, the Samsung executive, said.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)