Microsoft has joined the
Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium
(HMCC), a consortium, led by Micron Technology and
Samsung Electronics.
The HMCC is a collaboration of original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs), enablers and integrators who are
cooperating to develop and implement an open interface
standard for a new memory technology called the Hybrid
Memory Cube (HMC). Micron and Samsung, the initial
developing members of the HMCC, are working with
Altera, IBM, Open-Silicon, Xilinx and now Microsoft to
accelerate widespread industry adoption of HMC
technology.
The technology will enable highly efficient memory
solutions for applications ranging from industrial
products to high-performance computing and large-scale
networking. The HMCC's team of developers plans to
deliver a draft interface specification to "adopters"
that are joining the consortium. Then, the combined team
of developers and adopters will refine the draft and
release a final interface specification at the end of
this year.
"HMC technology represents a major step forward in the
direction of increasing memory bandwidth and
performance, while decreasing the energy and latency
needed for moving data between the memory arrays and the
processor cores, " said KD Hallman, General Manager of
Microsoft Strategic Software/Silicon Architectures.
"Harvesting this solution for various future systems
could lead to better and/or novel digital experiences."
One of the primary challenges facing the industry is
that the memory bandwidth required by high-performance
computers and next-generation networking equipment has
increased beyond what conventional memory architectures
can provide. The term "memory wall" has been used to
describe this dilemma. Breaking through the memory wall
requires architecture such as the HMC that can provide
increased density and bandwidth at significantly reduced
power consumption.
Hybrid Memory Cube is a new DRAM memory architecture that combines high-speed logic process technology with a stack of through-silicon-via (TSV) bonded memory die. According to the consortium, it offers dramatic improvements in performance, breaking through the memory wall and enabling performance and bandwidth improvements - a single HMC can provide more than 15x the performance of a DDR3 module. The architecture of HMC is exponentially more efficient than current memory, utilizing 70% less energy per bit than DDR3 DRAM technologies. Hybrid Memory Cube's increased density per bit and reduced form factor contribute to lower total cost of ownership, by allowing more memory into each machine and using nearly 90% less space than today's RDIMMs.