SanDisk, working alongside SK hynix, has introduced a new memory standard called High Bandwidth Flash (HBF) that combines NAND flash with advanced wafer bonding techniques to deliver read bandwidths that rival High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) while packing in dramatically more storage capacity.
The first open technical specifications for HBF were released on August 3-4, 2026, through the Open Compute Project. That’s just six months after the standardization effort kicked off in February 2026.
What HBF actually does
HBF is designed to sit between traditional SSDs and HBM in the memory hierarchy. SSDs offer plenty of capacity but relatively slow bandwidth. HBM delivers blistering speed but in small packages.
On a Llama 3.1 405B model benchmark, HBF’s read bandwidth performance came within 2.2% of unlimited-capacity HBM. The technology offers 8 to 16 times more capacity than HBM at comparable cost and power consumption.
