Non-binary DDR5 is Finally Coming to Save Your Wallet
upstart writes:
Need a New Year's resolution? How about stop paying for memory you don't need:
We're all used to dealing with system memory in neat factors of eight. As capacity goes up, it follows a predictable binary scale doubling from 8GB to 16GB to 32GB and so on. But with the introduction of DDR5 and non-binary memory in the datacenter, all of that's changing.
Instead of jumping straight from a 32GB DIMM to a 64GB one, DDR5, for the first time, allows for half steps in memory density. You can now have DIMMs with 24GB, 48GB, 96GB, or more in capacity.
The added flexibility offered by these DIMMs could end up driving down system costs, as customers are no longer forced to buy more memory than they need just to keep their workloads happy.
Non-binary memory isn't actually all that special. What makes non-binary memory different from standard DDR5 comes down to the chips used to make the DIMMs.
Instead of the 16Gb - that's gigabit - modules found on most DDR5 memory today, non-binary DIMMs use 24Gb DRAM chips. Take 20 of these chips and bake them onto a DIMM, and you're left with 48GB of usable memory after you take into account ECC and metadata storage.
[...] To date, all of the major memory vendors, including Samsung, SK-Hynix, and Micron, have announced 24Gb modules for use in non-binary DIMMs.
[...] Of course non-binary memory isn't the only way to get around the memory-core ratio problem.
"Technologies such as non-binary capacities are helpful, but so is the move to CXL memory - shared system memory - and on-chip high-bandwidth memory," Lam said.
[...] However, they are less an alternative to non-binary memory and more of a complement to them. In fact, Astera Lab's expansion modules should work just fine with 48GB, 96GB, or larger non-binary DIMMs.
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