SMART Modular Technologies, Inc. (“SMART”), a division of SGH (Nasdaq: SGH) and a global frontrunner in-memory solutions, solid-state drives, and advanced memory, proudly announces the launch of its new family of Add-In Cards (AICs). These state-of-the-art AICs implement the Compute Express Link (CXL) standard while supporting industry-standard DDR5 DIMMs, marking a significant milestone in memory expansion technology for high-performance servers.
The SMART 4-DIMM and 8-DIMM products enable server and data center architects to augment memory capacity by up to 4TB in a user-friendly, easily deployable form factor. As demand for CXL memory components in data center applications continues to surge, initial production shipments are anticipated in late 2024, with market projections exceeding the $2 billion mark by 2026.
SMART’s 4-DIMM and 8-DIMM DDR5 AICs are 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 memory capacity of 2TB using 512GB RDIMMs, while the 8-DIMM AIC (CXA-8F2W) supports eight DDR5 RDIMMs, offering a maximum memory capacity of 4TB.
The 4-DIMM AIC features a single CXL controller implementing one x16 CXL port, whereas the 8-DIMM AIC utilizes two CXL controllers to implement two x8 ports, resulting in a total bandwidth of 64GB/s. These AICs are equipped with CXL controllers that support “Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability” (RAS) features and advanced analytics. Additionally, they offer enhanced security features with in-band or sideband (SMBus) monitoring capability and are compatible with SMART’s Zefr ZDIMMs for accelerated memory processing.
According to Mike Howard, Vice President of DRAM and Memory Markets at TechInsights, the market for CXL memory components is expected to grow rapidly, with projected attach rates in the server market reaching 30%, encompassing both expansion and pooling use cases.
Andy Mills, Senior Director of Advanced Product Development at SMART Modular, underscores the significance of the CXL protocol in achieving industry-standard memory disaggregation and sharing. He reinforces Howard’s market analysis, affirming SMART’s rationale for developing this groundbreaking family of CXL-related products.
Built using advanced CXL controllers, SMART’s 4-DIMM and 8-DIMM AICs eliminate memory bandwidth bottlenecks and capacity constraints, particularly in compute-intensive workloads such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), and Machine Learning (ML) applications. These innovative solutions address the escalating demand for larger amounts of high-speed memory, surpassing the limitations of traditional DIMM-based parallel bus interfaces.
