SMART Modular Technologies Introduces New Family of CXL Add-in Cards for Memory Expansion in High Performance Servers
April 23 2024 - 11:00AM
Business Wire
SMART’s CXL Add-in Cards enable Data Center,
Cloud Services, and HPC Providers to Easily and Cost-Effectively
Expand Memory Capacity for Memory Intensive Compute
Applications
SMART Modular Technologies, Inc. (“SMART”), a division of SGH
(Nasdaq: SGH) and a global leader in memory solutions, solid-state
drives, and advanced memory, announces its new family of Add-In
Cards (AICs) which implements the Compute Express Link (CXL®)
standard and also supports industry standard DDR5 DIMMs. These are
the first in their class, high-density DIMM AICs to adopt the CXL
protocol. The SMART 4-DIMM and 8-DIMM products enable server and
data center architects to add up to 4TB of memory in a familiar,
easy-to-deploy form factor.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240423815199/en/
SMART Modular’s new high-density DIMM
Add-in Cards (AICs) are the first in their class to adopt the
Compute Express Link/CXL protocol, enabling server and data center
architects to add up to 4TB of memory in an easy-to-deploy form
factor, available in 8-DIMM and 4-DIMM configurations. (Photo:
Business Wire)
“The market for CXL memory components for data center
applications is expected to grow rapidly. Initial production
shipments are expected in late 2024 and will surpass the $2 billion
mark by 2026. Ultimately, CXL attach rates in the server market
will reach 30% including both expansion and pooling use cases,”
stated Mike Howard, vice president of DRAM and memory markets at
TechInsights, an intelligence source to semiconductor innovation
and related markets.
“The CXL protocol is an important step toward achieving industry
standard memory disaggregation and sharing which will significantly
improve the way memory is deployed in the coming years,” said Andy
Mills, senior director of advanced product development at SMART
Modular, reinforcing Howard’s market analysis and SMART’s rationale
for developing this family of CXL-related products.
SMART’s 4-DIMM and 8-DIMM AICs are built using advanced CXL
controllers which eliminate memory bandwidth bottlenecks and
capacity constraints for compute-intensive workloads encountered in
Artificial Intelligence (AI), high performance computing (HPC), and
Machine Learning (ML). These emerging applications require larger
amounts of high-speed memory that exceed what current servers can
accommodate. Attempts to add more memory via the traditional
DIMM-based parallel bus interface is becoming problematic due to
pin limitations on CPUs, so the industry is turning to CXL-based
solutions which are more pin efficient.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
About SMART’s 4-DIMM and 8-DIMM DDR5 AICs
- Available in type 3 PCIe Gen5 Full Height, Half Length (FHHL)
PCIe form factor.
- The 4-DIMM AIC (CXA-4F1W) accommodates four DDR5 RDIMMs with a
maximum of 2TB of memory capacity when using 512GB RDIMMs, and the
8-DIMM AIC (CXA-8F2W) accommodates eight DDR5 RDIMMs with a maximum
of 4TB of memory capacity.
- The 4-DIMM AIC uses a single CXL controller implementing one
x16 CXL port while the 8-DIMM AIC uses two CXL controllers to
implement two x8 ports, both resulting in a total bandwidth of
64GB/s.
- The CXL controllers support “Reliability, Availability, and
Serviceability” (RAS) features, and advanced analytics.
- Both offer enhanced security features with in-band or side band
(SMBus) monitoring capability.
- To accelerate memory processing, these add-in cards are
compatible with SMART’s Zefr™ ZDIMMs™.
CXL also enables lower cost scaling of memory capacity. Using
Smart’s AICs enables servers to reach up to 1TB of memory per CPU
with cost effective 64GB RDIMMs. They also offer an opportunity for
supply chain optionality. Replacing high density RDIMMs with a
greater number of lower density modules can enable lower system
memory costs depending on market conditions.
Visit SMART’s 4-DIMM product page and 8-DIMM AIC product page
for further information, and the CMM/CXL family page for
information on SMART’s other products using the CXL standard. SMART
will provide samples to OEMs upon request. These new CXL-based AIC
products join SMART’s ZDIMM line of DRAM as ideal solutions for
demanding memory design-in applications.
*The stylized “S” and “SMART” as well as “SMART Modular
Technologies”, “Zefr” and “ZDIMM” are trademarks and/or registered
trademarks of SMART Modular Technologies, Inc. “Compute Express
Link (CXL)” and all other trademarks and registered trademarks are
the properties of their respective owners.
About SMART Modular Technologies, Inc.
For more than 30 years, SMART Modular Technologies has been
helping customers around the world enable high performance
computing through the design, development and advanced packaging of
specialty memory solutions. Our robust portfolio ranges from
today’s leading edge technologies to standard and legacy DRAM and
Flash storage products. We provide standard, ruggedized and custom
memory and storage solutions that meet the needs of diverse
applications in high-growth markets.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240423815199/en/
Product Marketing Contact Arthur Sainio SMART Modular
Technologies Director, DRAM Product Marketing 39870 Eureka Dr.,
Newark, CA 94583 arthur.sainio@smartm.com
Media Contact John Crook SMART Modular Technologies Marketing
Communications +1 (510) 474 8326 john.crook@smartm.com
SMART Global (NASDAQ:SGH)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2024 to Aug 2024
SMART Global (NASDAQ:SGH)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2023 to Aug 2024