Inphi LRDIMM Memory Buffers Unleash Memory Speed, Capacity for Intel Xeon® Processor E5 Family

32GB and 16GB LRDIMM modules with Inphi’s iMB component extends Intel Xeon Processor E5 family-based systems’ memory performance and capacity by electrically isolating the host memory interface. This allows higher memory capacity (up to 768GB) to operate at higher channel speeds (up to 1333 MT/s).

“As new and more-powerful processors emerge, they add significantly to the overall system demands of the designs they’re based on, and memory is no exception,” said Paul Washkewicz, vice president of marketing for Inphi’s Computing and Storage products. “Isolation memory buffering technology such as Inphi’s iMB is the most effective way for systems’ memory structure to keep pace with the performance and capacity requirements of new processor technology, while still staying within reasonable cost parameters.”

“Moving from physical servers dedicated to a single application to virtualized servers supporting larger workloads across many users requires more memory and power efficiency to deliver optimal application performance,” said Michael Kendall, group manager, Industry Standard Servers, HP. “HP works closely with Inphi to design and qualify HP SmartMemory LRDIMM memory on HP ProLiant Gen 8 servers to extract the most memory performance and power efficiency for our customers to save them time and money.”

“The Intel Xeon Processor E5 family-based servers are a significant step forward that can address the ever-increasing needs of cloud and data center servers, while solutions such as LRDIMM are poised to meet the demand for greater performance and efficiencies in systems’ memory and storage,” said Geof Findley senior memory ecosystem manager at Intel.

“While multi-core microprocessors improve server utilization and efficiency, they also place enormous demand on memory and bandwidth capacity, eventually resulting in memory bandwidth bottlenecks that starve the processors for data,” said Shane Rau, research director, computing semiconductors at market research company IDC, “We, therefore, can see the market need for memory bandwidth solutions. The combination of LRDIMM and memory buffer technologies is designed to deliver significant increases in memory capacity and bandwidth without negatively impacting performance and power.”

Prior to the debut of the Intel Xeon Processor E5 family, the Inphi iMBGS02A buffer had already passed several rigorous validation steps by Intel, entailing a variety of process, voltage temperature and frequency tests. The iMBGS02A has now been verified for compliance on the Intel Xeon Processor X5 family-based servers, assuring the devices’ interoperability. The device is also compliant with the memory-buffer specification of the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association.

Unlike traditional registered DIMMs, or RDIMMS, which limit the amount of server memory that can be installed due to their loading profile, LRDIMMs replace the register with a memory buffer to reduce the load. This enables servers’ memory to easily scale upward, with more and higher-density DRAMs on each module, so that both capacity and speed are boosted while using the same number of motherboard slots as would an RDIMM.

To address the incredible growth of data traffic in the cloud, Intel Corporation has announced the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600/1600 product families. These new processors deliver leadership performance, exceptional energy efficiency, breakthrough I/O innovation and trusted hardware security features to enable IT to scale. These processors are not only at the heart of servers and workstations, but will also power the next-generation of storage and communication systems from leading vendors around the world.