Samsung Announces Industry’s First CXL Module With DDR5 Memory And PCIe 5.0 Connectivity

It looks like Samsung is taking a keen interest in Datacenters with the introduction of their CLX Memory Expander. In pictures, it looks the same as Samsung’s T7 Portable SSD, but it is a memory expansion device that is based on the Compute Express Link (CLX) interconnect standard.

The question arises why not use conventional DDR-based memory? This is because the memory channel brings limitations and Samsung’s CXL-enabled module takes care of memory capacity to terabyte levels. Samsung also claims that it will drastically reduce the latency caused due to memory caching.

The CXL is an open standard and enjoys widespread industry backing. PCI Express 5.0 interface is used for interconnecting, which also allows quick communication between the processor and the other components and also boosts memory capacity and bandwidth.

Samsung has also said that it will include some controller and software technologies into the design of its CLX Memory Expander, like memory mapping, interface converting, and error management. This will allow both the CPU and GPU to recognize the CXL module as the main memory. If this becomes a reality, we will soon see it on a consumer platform.

As per Samsung, its terabyte-level memory solution has already been validated on the next-generation server platform from Intel too. Moreover, AMD is also working with Samsung to introduce its advanced interconnect memory solution for its EPYC customers.

Via Samsung