New wave of AI PCs with release of ultra-fast clock driver DDR5 memory portfolio

Micron Technology, Inc. now offers the availability of a brand-new category of clock driver memory with the launch of its Crucial DDR5 CUDIMM and CSODIMM, which are now shipping in volume. The JEDEC-standard solutions run up to 6,400MT/s, more than twice as fast as DDR41 and 15% faster than traditional non-clock-driver-based DDR5.2. Designed to provide more speed stability, faster downloads and better refresh rates, these solutions represent a new frontier of memory form factors for next-generation PCs. The company's CUDIMM and CSODIMM solutions are the industry's first commercially available JEDEC-standard DDR5 CUDIMM and CSODIMM solutions to hit the market since JEDEC standardized the specification earlier this year.

In addition, Intel has validated Micron DDR5 CUDIMM and CSODIMM solutions up to capacities of 64GB for use with its Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2), launched in October 2024.

"As AI takes flight, a memory paradigm shift is needed to keep pace with unprecedented system performance requirements," said Dinesh Bahal, corporate vice president and general manager of Micron's Commercial Products Group. "Micron is shipping the industry's first JEDEC-standard, commercially available DDR5 CUDIMM and CSODIMM solutions to power fast, out-of-the-box speeds for AI PCs and high-end workstations. With this new category, we are arming the ecosystem with next-generation memory solutions to future-proof today's devices for tomorrow's AI workloads."

While DDR5 delivers rapid speeds, scaling challenges have made it difficult to increase DDR performance while ensuring reliable high speeds and signal integrity, especially when combining high bandwidth with large capacity. Representing an evolution of traditional UDIMMs, the new CUDIMMs and CSODIMMs feature a clock driver directly on the memory module to stabilize speeds. While most systems today rely on the clock from the CPU, using innovative engineering, the company has directly integrated the clock driver into the memory module to conquer electrical challenges at the root, making memory faster and more stable.

Intel's validation of these new client memory modules will empower top PC manufacturers and integrators to begin adopting the company's innovative clock driver-based memory into forthcoming PC platforms. It is the first memory vendor to validate 32 gigabit die-based 64GB CUDIMM and CSODIMM solutions for Intel Core Ultra desktop processors. This allows system capacities up to 256GB for AI PCs and high-end workstations, which demand high memory densities and performance.

"Micron and Intel have been working together to bring next-generation compute performance to the market," said Dimitrios Ziakas, vice president of memory and I/O technologies at Intel. "The powerful combination of Intel Core Ultra desktop processors and Micron's latest clock driver-powered CUDIMM/CSODIMMs with up to massive 64GB capacities will be critical to helping propel the next wave of data-rich AI PCs to 6400 MT/s speeds. By aligning our strategies and co-validating, we are offering the most advanced memory and CPU products to our customers and the market and accelerating ecosystem adoption of future-looking form factors."

The 6,400MT/s speeds provided by Crucial's plug-and-play DDR5 CUDIMM and CSODIMM memory offer an out-of-the-box performance boost to AI PCs and other data-hungry workloads, whether users are upgrading from a DDR4 system or looking to increase DDR5 performance. The CUDIMM solutions are ideal for desktop computers, and the CSODIMM solutions are ideal for laptops.