SMART Modular Technologies Introduces New Family of CXL Add-in Cards for Memory Expansion in High Performance Servers
SMART’s CXL Add-in Cards enable Data Center,
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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
“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
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
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