Micron Technology and AgigA Tech, Inc., a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp., have signed an agreement to collaborate to develop and offer nonvolatile DIMM (NVDIMM) products. The partnership will leverage the strengths of the respective companies, with Micron's expertise in memory IC, module development, and manufacturing, and AgigA Tech's substantial IP and patent position in the area of hybrid nonvolatile RAM technology. As part of the agreement, Micron will offer to their customers an NVDIMM module that will pair with AgigA Tech's power modules, based on ultracapacitors (PowerGEM), to create a complete NVDIMM solution.

NVDIMMs enable fast, persistent main memory for high-performance computing applications. By combining DRAM and NAND Flash technology, NVDIMMs provide the low latency and nearly infinite endurance of DRAM, along with the nonvolatility of Flash. During normal operation, the NVDIMM appears to the host system as a standard JEDEC DRAM memory module. In the event of an unexpected power loss, the critical data residing in the DRAM is saved to onboard NAND Flash using a battery-free power source based on ultracapacitors. When power is returned, the in-memory state of the DRAM at the time power was lost is restored from the Flash. The recovery time from a catastrophic power-loss event is almost immediate since the restore operation takes a matter of seconds and recharging the ultracapacitors takes only minutes. NVDIMMs are designed to integrate easily into the DIMM slots of industry-standard server and storage platforms.

NVDIMM samples are expected to be available in 1Q13.