MRDIMM innovations deliver highest performance and lowest latency

Micron Technology, Inc. is now sampling its MRDIMMs. The MRDIMMs will enable its customers to run increasingly demanding workloads and obtain maximum value from their compute infrastructure. For applications requiring more than 128GB of memory per DIMM slot, these MRDIMMs outperform current TSV RDIMMs by allowing the highest bandwidth, largest capacity with the lowest latency and improved performance per watt to accelerate memory-intensive virtualised multi-tenant, HPC and AI data centre workloads. The new memory offering is the first generation in the family and will be compatible with Intel Xeon 6 processors.

"Micron's latest innovative main memory solution, MRDIMM, delivers the much-needed bandwidth and capacity at lower latency to scale AI inference and HPC applications on next-generation server platforms," said Praveen Vaidyanathan, vice president and general manager of Micron's Compute Products Group. "MRDIMMs significantly lower the amount of energy used per task while offering the same reliability, availability and serviceability capabilities and interface as RDIMMs, thus providing customers a flexible solution that scales performance. Micron's close industry collaborations ensure seamless integration into existing server infrastructures and smooth transitions to future compute platforms."

By implementing DDR5 physical and electrical standards, MRDIMM technology provides a memory advancement that allows bandwidth and capacity per core scaling to future-proof compute systems and meets the expanding demands of data centre workloads.

MRDIMMs support a wide capacity range from 32GB to 256GB in standard and tall form factors (TFF), which are suited to high-performance 1U and 2U servers. The improved thermal design of TFF modules reduces DRAM temperatures by up to 20C at the same power and airflow, allowing more efficient cooling capabilities in data centres and optimising total system task energy for memory-intensive workloads. The company's industry-leading memory design and process technology using 32Gb DRAM die allows 256GB TFF MRDIMMs to have the same power envelope as 128GB TFF MRDIMMs using 16Gb die. A 256GB TFF MRDIMM provides a 35% improvement in performance over similar-capacity TSV RDIMMs at the maximum data rate. With 256GB TFF MRDIMMs, data centres can drive unprecedented TCO benefits over TSV RDIMMs.

"By leveraging DDR5 interfaces and technology, MRDIMMs provide seamless compatibility with existing Xeon 6 CPU platforms, giving customers flexibility and choice," said Matt Langman, vice president and general manager of Datacenter Product Management, Intel Xeon 6 at Intel. "MRDIMMs provide customers a full choice of higher bandwidth, lower latencies and capacity points for HPC, AI and a plethora of workloads, all on the same Xeon 6 CPU platforms that also support standard DIMMs. Our customers will benefit from Micron's broad portfolio of MRDIMMs ranging from 32GB to 256GB densities and in standard and tall form factors that will be validated with Intel Xeon 6 platforms."

"As processor and GPU vendors have given us exponentially more cores, the memory bandwidth required to deliver balanced system performance has lagged. Micron MRDIMMs will help close the bandwidth gap for memory-intensive workloads like AI inference, AI retraining and countless high-performance computing workloads," said Scott Tease, vice president and general manager of AI and High-Performance Computing at Lenovo. "Our collaboration with Micron is stronger than ever and laser-focused on delivering balanced, high-performance, sustainable technology solutions to our mutual customers."

These MRDIMMs are available now and will ship in volume in the second half of 2024. Subsequent generations of MRDIMMs will continue to deliver up to 45% better memory bandwidth per channel over similar-generation RDIMMs.