Ferroelectric Memories Answer Call For Non-Volatile Alternatives


As system designers seek to manipulate larger data sets while reducing power consumption, ferroelectric memory may be part of the solution. It offers an intermediate step between the speed of DRAM and the stability of flash memory. Changing the polarization of ferroelectric domains is extremely fast, and the polarization remains stable without power for years, if not decades. FeFETs, one of ... » read more

Breaking The 1M RAID5 Write IOPS Barrier


In today’s data-centric age, enormous amounts of data are generated, stored and processed at an unprecedented rate. Businesses are utilizing this data to make better decisions, drive greater efficiencies, develop more desirable products, improve profitability and ultimately increase user satisfaction. To continue deriving a high degree of value from a rapidly-expanding data flow, today’s en... » read more

Research Bits: Oct. 18


Modular AI chip Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, Stanford University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, and Tsinghua University created a modular approach to building stackable, reconfigurable AI chips. The design comprises alternating layers of sensing and processing elements, along with LEDs t... » read more

Is There A Limit To The Number of Layers In 3D-NAND?


Memory vendors are racing to add more layers to 3D NAND, a competitive market driven by the explosion in data and the need for higher-capacity solid state drives and faster access time. Micron already is filling orders for 232-layer NAND, and not to be outdone, SK Hynix announced that it will begin volume manufacturing 238-layer 512Gb triple level cell (TLC) 4D NAND in the first half of next... » read more

Tradeoffs In Archiving Data


If you’ve ever had to sort through old technical documents, wondering what still has value and what can be safely tossed, you can identify with the quandary of Thomas Levy, UCSD professor of anthropology and co-founder of the field of cyber-archaeology. Staring at thousands of pieces of pottery in a Jordanian dessert, he erred on the side of keeping it all. “My personal perspective when ... » read more

PCIe 6.0, NVMe, And Emerging Form Factors For Storage Applications


PCIe 6.0 implementations are expandable and hierarchical with embedded switches or switch chips, allowing one root port to interface with multiple endpoints (such as storage devices, Ethernet cards, and display drivers). While the introduction of PCIe 6.0 at 64GT/s helped to increase the bandwidth available for storage applications with minimal or no increase in latency, the lack of coherency s... » read more

How New Storage Technologies Enhance HPC Systems


High-performance computing (HPC) has historically been available primarily to governments, research institutions, and a few very large corporations for modeling, simulation, and forecasting applications. As HPC platforms are being deployed in the cloud for shared services, high-performance computing is becoming much more accessible, and its use is benefiting organizations of all sizes. Increasi... » read more

Improving Memory Efficiency And Performance


This is the second of two parts on CXL vs. OMI. Part one can be found here. Memory pooling and sharing are gaining traction as ways of optimizing existing resources to handle increasing data volumes. Using these approaches, memory can be accessed by a number of different machines or processing elements on an as-needed basis. Two protocols, CXL and OMI, are being leveraged to simplify thes... » read more

CXL and OMI: Competing or Complementary?


System designers are looking at any ideas they can find to increase memory bandwidth and capacity, focusing on everything from improvements in memory to new types of memory. But higher-level architectural changes can help to fulfill both needs, even as memory types are abstracted away from CPUs. Two new protocols are helping to make this possible, CXL and OMI. But there is a looming question... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: April 13


Speedy data transfer Researchers from MIT, Intel, and Raytheon developed a new data transfer system that both boosts speeds and reduces energy use by taking elements from both traditional copper cables and fiber optics. "There's an explosion in the amount of information being shared between computer chips -- cloud computing, the internet, big data. And a lot of this happens over conventiona... » read more

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