Semiconductor giant SK hynix now makes chips you can eat

South Korea's semiconductor giant SK hynix has made a foray into a new genre of chips -- the kind that's crunchy and goes with a beer.

Packing 385 calories a bag, the company's new "HBM chips" snack is a nod to its top-selling high-bandwidth memory semiconductors, in great demand to power AI systems.

But in this case, the acronym stands for Honey Banana Mat -- Korean for "flavour".

The "semiconductor-shaped" chips are an "initiative to bring semiconductors closer to everyday life and make the public feel more familiar with them," an SK hynix official told AFP Thursday.

The supplier to US giant Nvidia made the world's first HBM semiconductors in 2013, and remains one of the biggest manufacturer of the product.

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The group, which described its latest offering as "a blend of technological form and sensory flavour", said the snack is a collaboration with 7-Eleven which began selling them in their convenience stores this week. 

Rival Samsung Electronics had also ventured into quirky food items that generated buzz, with a limited-edition "QD Ramen" in 2022 to mark its quantum-dot OLED panels.

However, the QD Ramen was only handed out to employees and not sold in stores.

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