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Microchip Introduces New CXL™ Smart Memory Controllers for Data Center Computing Enabling Modern CPUs to Optimize Application WorkloadsCHANDLER, Ariz., Aug. 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The continuous computational demands of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) workloads, cloud computing and data analytics deployed on traditional parallel attached memory have reached an efficiency plateau due to the limitations of increased memory channels on a processor. Microchip Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MCHP) today announces the expansion of its serial-attached memory controller portfolio with the new SMC 2000 series of Compute Express Link™ (CXL™) based Smart Memory Controllers that enable CPUs, GPUs and SoCs to utilize CXL interfaces to connect either DDR4 or DDR5 memory. This solution delivers more memory bandwidth per core, more memory capacity per core, and lowers the overall total cost of ownership in the data center by allowing modern CPUs to optimize application workloads. The low-latency SMC 2000 16x32G?and SMC 2000 8x32G memory controllers are designed to CXL 1.1 and CXL 2.0 specifications, DDR4 and DDR5 JEDEC standards and support PCIe® 5.0 specification speeds. The SMC 2000 16x32G is the industry’s highest-capacity controller with 16 lanes operating at 32 GT/s and supports two channels of DDR4-3200 or DDR5-4800, resulting in a significant reduction in the required number of host CPU or SoC pins per memory channel. Typical CXL attached memory modules include 512 GB of memory or more, providing an effective mechanism to increase the memory bandwidth available to processing cores. This new paradigm shift provides data center operators the ability to deploy a broader range of ratios for memory to CPU cores depending on their actual application needs, resulting in improved memory utilization and lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). “The CXL Consortium was founded with a vision to deliver to the industry an open standard that would accelerate next-generation data center performance,” said Siamak Tavallaei, president, CXL Consortium. “We’re pleased to see Microchip, a valuable contributor to the CXL Consortium, deliver a CXL solution enabling a new ecosystem for high-performance, heterogeneous computing.” Data center application workloads require future memory products that can deliver the same high-performance bandwidth, low latency and reliability of today’s parallel-DDR based memory products. The CXL platform is one of the biggest industry disruptions in ecent years, bringing to market a new standard serial interface for CPUs to expand memory beyond the parallel DDR interface to provide the next level of efficiency and performance to the data center. Development Tools To support our customers in building leading edge systems that are compliant with the CXL standard, the SMC 2000 comes with design-in collateral and our ChipLink diagnostic tool that provides extensive debug, diagnostics, configuration and analysis tools with an intuitive GUI. Pricing and Availability The SMC 2000 16x32G will sample to select customers in Q3CY22. For additional information, visit www.microchip.com/smartmemory. To order samples, contact a Microchip sales representative. Resources High-res images available through Flickr or editorial contact (feel free to publish):
Additional Quotes from CXL Community "Today’s data center requires continuous innovation across the entire compute ecosystem including memory interface technologies in order to meet the performance and scalability demands of our customers," said Raghu Nambiar, corporate vice president, Data Center Ecosystems and Solutions at AMD. "Microchip's new SMC 2000 utilizes CXL interfaces for memory expansion and can greatly improve system performance. We are excited to work with Microchip to deliver a cohesive memory solution for our mutual customers and propel the computer industry forward to meet these next-generation data center needs." “Cadence collaborated closely with Microchip on CXL verification and compliance testing, leveraging multiple Cadence Verification IP offerings to fine-tune the interconnect technology needed to advance performance for AI and HPC applications,” said Paul Cunningham, senior vice president and general manager of the System & Verification Group at Cadence. “Microchip’s release of the SMC 2000 CXL controller provides the memory bandwidth and capacity expansion required for the next generation of CPUs and GPUs to accelerate high-performance compute.” “Dell is a strong promoter of CXL and is actively participating in the CXL Consortium and standards development. CXL provides the flexible infrastructure needed to optimize the TCO of current and emerging workloads on our future systems,” said Stuart Berke, fellow and VP at Dell.?“We are excited to see Microchip’s SMC 2000 CXL-based Smart Memory Controllers enter the CXL memory ecosystem.” “The momentum behind CXL is currently being fueled by the need for low-latency and high-bandwidth I/O solutions,” said Jim Pappas, Director of Technology Initiatives at Intel. “Microchip, with their SMC 2000 Smart Memory Controller, is a key contributor to the developing ecosystem, and we are pleased to see their investment to drive broader deployment of CXL devices and to enable rapid industry adoption.” “As an active member of the CXL Consortium, Lenovo is committed to developing this important standard and helping build the ecosystem around the new CXL interconnect,” said Greg Huff, Chief Technology Officer, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group. “We are excited to be part of developing solutions that enable a new era of data center performance and efficiency, working with Microchip to foster the growth and adoption of innovative CXL products in future Lenovo systems.” “CXL memory solutions are expected to create many new opportunities in the future for the industry, with continuous emergence of more complex memory-bound future applications. It will allow customers to manage memories more efficiently through additional scaling in memory bandwidth and capacity at lower TCO. SK hynix expects that Microchip's SMC 2000 memory controller will provide a desirable solution to satisfy such needs and accelerate expanding the overall CXL ecosystem,” said Uksong Kang, vice president of DRAM Product and Planning at SK hynix. About Microchip Technology Note: The Microchip name and logo and the Microchip logo are registered trademarks of Microchip Technology Incorporated in the U.S.A. and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies.
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