SMART Modular, one of the world leaders in memory solutions, solid state drives and hybrid storage, has just announced its first DDR5 XMM CXL memory module. By adding cache-coherent memory behind the Compute Express Link interface, it is able to break through the 8 / 12 channel limitations of most current platforms and significantly increase the data processing power of servers and data center applications.
SMART Modular notes that CXL provides a composable serially connected memory architecture that opens up a new era for the industry to increase system memory capacity and bandwidth significantly beyond the main memory DIMM.
With the XMM CXL solution, memory modules can be shared across nodes to meet throughput and latency requirements. In addition, server customers can easily and dynamically adjust configurations for different applications/workloads without shutting down.
Mike Rubino, vice president of engineering at SMART Modular, said.
"We have a long history of supporting industry standards such as JEDEC, CCIX / Gen-Z consortium and OpenCAPI/OMI. We are also pleased to be working with CPU and CXL ASIC vendors and are committed to meeting our customers' demanding requirements for bandwidth, capacity and performance."
SMART Modular is said to have equipped its XMM CXL module with an advanced ASIC controller. S form factor and places 64GB of DDR5 memory, compliant with the CXL 2.0 specification, into the E3.
"The goal is to build an ecosystem of customer and CPU partners to validate compliance across server platforms. In addition, SMART Modular's XMM CXL module makes it easy to expand additional memory capacity for the system and dynamically allocate resources behind the CXL interface for the required workload."
The company is now leveraging its experience with new technologies and interconnect standards to fully drive and support the adoption of CXL memory.
"The first product is an XMM CXL memory module based on the E3.S form factor designed to expand memory capacity and bandwidth. Other SKUs expected to arrive soon include form factors such as AIC expansion cards and E1."
Finally, SMART Modular supports ASIC and FPGA-based memory modules and meets RAS functionality and CXL validation requirements.
This includes data path integrity, poisoning and error injection, memory ECC, Chipkill ECC memory and cleanup to ensure that the new XMM CXL memory modules work as expected.
