Rambus has launched a JEDEC-standard DDR4 registering clock driver for non-volatile DIMM (NVRCD). According to Bill Fuller, a senior director of field application engineering at Rambus, non-volatile dual in-line memory module (NVDIMM) technologies enable the next generation of the cloud data center market by accelerating workloads for big data analytics and other demanding applications.
“The new solution is fully compliant with the latest JEDEC DDR4, RCD and NVRCD specifications. It also enables persistent memory dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs)— a new addition to memory and storage hierarchy,” says Fuller. “This bridges the gap between dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and storage, allowing greater flexibility in data management by providing non-volatile, low-latency memory closer to the processor. These products support NVDIMMs operating at speeds up to DDR4-3200.”
As Fuller notes, Rambus’ new DDR4 NVRCD enables the company’s ecosystem of collaborative industry leading customers, vendors and partners interested in persistent, non-volatile memory solutions to deliver next-generation solutions with differentiation and added functionality.
“We are a leading provider of server DIMM chipset products and this DDR4 NVRCD launch leverages our leading DDR4 chipsets to expand into this emerging market,” he adds. “The demand for in-memory computing has dramatically risen with the industry’s requirement for more bandwidth and delivering faster data. Ideal for high-performance, high-capacity enterprise and data center systems, the Rambus DDR4 NVRCD delivers industry-leading I/O performance and margin.”
Non-volatile DDR4 registering clock driver: A closer look
Register Clock Drivers (RCD) buffer and retime command, address and clock signals from the host CPU, effectively reducing signal loading on the system controller by isolating the DRAM. Rambus’ NVRCD – is an ASSP clock driver that meets or exceeds all JEDEC DDR4 performance specifications – is operational up to DDR4-3200. It also meets or exceed all JEDEC RCD2 (rev 93) operation requirements and supports JEDEC LCOM interface, which saves FPGA pins usage. This NVRCD is for NVDIMM-N products, which specifically implement non-volatile solid state memory (NAND Flash, for example) and DDR4 DRAM on the same DIMM.
However, Rambus’ NVRCD also enables future emerging technologies such as NVDIMM-P architectures. Persistent memory usage on the DIMM has many use cases for hyperscale, high performance and high capacity data centers. These applications include latency reduction, power reduction, metadata storage, in-memory databases, software-defined server RAID, as well as reduced processing load during unexpected failures.
Key DDR4 NVRCD features include:
* Operational speeds up to DDR4-3200
* Compatible with current technology DDR and persistent memories
* Works out-of-the-box – no BIOS changes required.
* MR snooping
* CSR command execution
* DRAM RD/WR command replication
* NVC access RCD at any time
* LCK clock multiplication/division
* LCK clock synchronization
* High performance LCOM runs at 500 MHz and supports host disconnect/reconnect, RCD initialization, DRAM initialization and other sequences
The NVRCD is available in production quantities today and is the first product in the Rambus memory buffer chip portfolio for NVDIMM-N products as well as emerging NVDIMM-P solutions.
