NEW MEMORY TECHNOLOGIES

Today, several next-generation memories, such as Magnetic RAM (MRAM), phase-change memory (PCM) and Re-RAM, are shipping to one degree or another. Some of upcoming memories are extensions of the current technologies. Removing them out of Research and development overcomes several technical and business difficulties, and it’s unlikely that all of them will succeed. But some are especially promising and potentially targeted to replace today’s Dynamic random access memory (DRAM), NAND and Static random-access memory (SRAM).

What is the need for different memory technologies?

Globally, 4.3 million videos are being watched on YouTube, 400 hours of new videos are added, more than 474,000 tweets shared, and there are over 3.5 billion searches on Google - every minute. According to a report by IDC, in 2025 there will be 175 zettabytes of data.

picture courtesy/source : https://bigstep.com/blog/modern-storage-technologies-in-2020

In the current fast growing world we need to access the data quickly and also need huge space to store it. That's why we need to adopt to the upcoming memory technologies.

New Memory Technologies

DIMM

DIMM is an upcoming memory technology that uses flash chips of NAND (NVM) in standard cards so that it can directly connect to memory slots. This not only results in solving the problem of power loss, but it also reduces system performance. Flash when compared to DRAM is slower at reading and writing data

DRAM which stands for Dynamic Random Access Memory Dynamic is used for active computing, it loses its data when the power goes away.With the increase in rapid processing due to the use of in-memory database system, the developers have to make sure that the data is retained even after there is power loss.

What is DIMM?

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3D XPoint

3D XPoint is a breakthrough in NVM technology. 3D XPoint is a solid-state drive (SSD) that provides high speed when it comes to accessing memory. It is basically a combination of RAM and flash storage, this makes it four times denser than traditional RAM. It is a non-volatile form of memory. When compared to NAND and DRAM, 3D XPoint is almost 1000 times faster at reading and writing information.

Intel and Micron To Dissolve 3D XPoint Partnership After 2019

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Intel Optane

Intel optane is basically an unique combination of Intel 3D XPoint memory media with Intel-built advanced system memory controller, software IP and interface hardware. Combined together, these two present new computer architecture opportunities and computing possibilities.Intel Optane offers high capacity, affordability and persistence.

Some of the features of Intel Optane are great system uptime, faster recovery after power cycles, it accelerates virtual machine storage, it delivers higher performance to multi-node, distributed cloud applications and it also offers advanced encryption for persistent data built into the hardware. It delivers more server instances at the same service-level agreement performance, for memory-intensive workloads.

What Is Intel Optane Memory?

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STT-MRAM

STT-MRAM means spin-transfer torque magnetic random access memory. The information in it is stored in magnetic states of tint magnetic elements which is less than 100 nanometers across.The devices based on STT-MRAM use electric current for reading and writing of data. This technology in written offers high density, high speed and energy-efficient memory which is non-volatile. With STT-MRAM, the programming current flows through the magnet rather instead of write lines which are adjacent to the bit.

Highest Density 256Mb STT-MRAM Chips Enter Volume Production - ChipsNWafers

picture courtesy/source : https://chipsnwafers.electronicsforu.com/2018/01/19/highest-density-256mb-stt-mram-chips-enter-volume-production/

NVDIMM

NVDIMM means Non volatile dual in-line memory module. NVDIMM is basically a few terabytes of flash or similar storage mounted on a DIMM. As NVDIMM is on fast bus and uses memory IO methods, it is four times faster than the fastest SSD. It creates a journal file of write transactions and maintains an image of the data in-memory, without affecting its operations.

HPE NVDIMMs | HPE Store US

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There are four types of NVDIMM:

1) NVDIMM-F: DIMM with flash storage. System users have to pair the storage DIMM alongside a traditional DRAM DIMM.

2) NVDIMM-N: DIMM with flash storage and traditional DRAM on the same module. The computer accesses the traditional DRAM directly. In case of a power failure, the module will copy the data from the volatile traditional DRAM to the persistent flash storage, and then copies it back when power is restored. A small backup source is required for it.

3) NVDIMM-P: specifications will be released by JEDEC in 1H2020. Using the persistent memory it will enable computer main memory to be persistent It can also share the DDR4 or DDR5 DIMM interconnect with DRAM DIMMs.

4) NVDIMM-X: DDR4 DIMM with NAND Flash storage and volatile DRAM on the same module, developed by Xitore.

Conclusion

The data industry is evolving very quickly and can be a cruel environment for companies which don't keep up with the trends or do not invest properly in the development of new products. However, the same fast-paced evolving industry also encourages the emergence of new hardware technologies like storage-class memories, NVMe over Fabrics, and new software storage services aiming towards computational and intent-based storage solutions.

Thank you for reading the blog!

Contributors to this article: Tanmay Paratkar

References