Looking to beef up server capacity? The Inventec 96 DIMM CXL box could be what you’re looking for. Unveiled at OCP Summit 2024 alongside Astera Labs, the CXL expansion box allows users to connect up to 96 DDR5 DIMMS to a single server, providing enormous memory capacities ranging up to the tens of terabytes per memory server.
As reported by ServeTheHome, the expansion box can connect to the upcoming eight-way Intel Xeon 6 Granite Rapids-SP server, offering an even bigger punch.
Combined with the Intel Xeon 6 server, which boasts a total of 128 DDR DIMM slots, this means users could harness a massive 244 DIMM slots for a single server, providing significant memory capacity.
What you can expect from the 96 DIMM CXL expansion box
So what does this announcement mean exactly? Well, we’re talking about significant memory capacity boosts for servers.
The DDR5 DIMMS in question here are DDR5-4800, and the expansion box uses the Astera Labs Leo. Elsewhere, users are able to draw up 24 CDFP ports, each of which boasts a PCIe Gen5 x16 connection linking the CXL boat and the servers themselves.
As Servethehome noted, the launch shows users can draw upon a sizable 20TB of memory in a single server, which has massive long-term implications for server capacities and marks a huge development.
Underpinning all of this is the growing potential of compute express link (CXL) technology.
In 2023, Meta announced a partnership with AMD to showcase a memory type that can be added onto servers and capable of recycling petabytes worth of RAM.
As part of the collaboration, the two firms showed CXL can be used to markedly improve memory efficiency, in turn reducing costs and enhancing performance.
The demo board showcased by AMD and Meta included an AMD EPYC 9004 Genoa, boasted four dual in-line memory module (DIMM) slots, and a heat sink and fan.
Astera Labs’ involvement here marks the second major announcement from the semiconductor company so far this year. In April 2024, Astera Labs showcased its Aries 6 PCIe retimer board, which TechRadar Pro reported at the time could unlock significant benefits for hyperscalers ramping up AI development.
This retimer board can help maintain data signal integrity over the PCIe interface.
These high-speed data transfers typically suffer from degradation over long distances or due to interference.
The Aries 6 retimers marked the first in Astera Labs’ PCIe 6.x portfolio, and are aimed specifically at enhancing networking capabilities for next-generation GPUs, accelerators, CPUs, and CXL memory controllers.
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