The Advantages of High-Density VLP RDIMMs for Edge/5G/IIoT Applications

Edge computing, 5G, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are, without a doubt, revolutionizing the information technology landscape and every aspect of people’s lives. Cities are becoming smarter, and so are cars, homes, and industries. Everything is connected to everything, and automation is offering huge potentials for businesses.

At the heart of this revolution is DATA – unprecedented amounts of data are being generated, transferred, accessed, analyzed, and transformed into usable, actionable insights at blistering speeds. Enabling and accelerating this vastly connected, intelligent future is MEMORY.

As Quick as Real Time: High Density, High Speed, Low Latency

Data is moving closer to the source; meaning it is stored, processed, and analyzed near the physical location where it was actually obtained, instead of staying in the cloud or in centralized repositories. According to Gartner, “Edge computing tackles a growing demand to address lower latency, process the growing amount of data on the edge and support resilience to network disconnection.”

A Gartner report estimates that while around 10% of enterprise-generated data is currently created and processed outside a traditional centralized data center or cloud, this will reach 75% by 2025.

Devices requiring ultra-fast responses such as autonomous vehicles will benefit much from high-capacity DRAM, as more high-performance applications can run at the same time. High-capacity DRAMs mean reduced CPU loads, so you can expect faster boot-up times, overall improved performance, and speedier data transfers.

Can the DDR4 Memory Standard Keep Up?

While DDR5 definitely promises faster performance, higher memory bandwidth, and higher densities, many systems are still unable to migrate and continue to run on DDR4. To meet the increasing memory requirements of edge, 5G, and IIoT systems running DDR4, ATP Electronics is offering 64 GB DDR4 very low profile registered DIMMs (VLP RDIMMs) to enhance these systems’ capabilities to process huge amounts of data.

These high-performance VLP RDIMMs offer twice the density of typical 32 GB VLP RDIMMs available in the market to meet the increasing memory requirements resulting from the endless generation of data from connected cars, smart factories, and other 5G I/IoT applications. The memory speed boosts processing and computational power to effectively handle expanding memory requirements.

Organized as 8192 MB x 72 bits in a 288-pin DIMM, each module utilizes 18 chips of 8Gx4 DDR4 SDRAMs in dual-die package (DDP) stacked chips, enabling greater density on a very compact form factor. Each module consists of a 512-byte serial EEPROM containing the module information, and includes error correction code (ECC) to support error detection and correction.

Low Height, High Performance

Blade and 1U rack servers are two of the most common servers used in data centers. A 1U rack server, as its name implies, is usually mounted on a rack, stacked, and fitted within a metal enclosure. One standard rack unit is 1.75 inches or 44.75 mm.

Blade servers are smaller, modular, single-board computers. They are physically thin, which is why they are commonly used in large data centers that want to maximize space and conserve power.

Component density is an ever-present challenge for these servers. Due to their compact size and low profile, blade and 1U rack servers have to pack their components within the limited space. During heavy workloads, they require effective cooling and heat dissipation.

ATP’s new 64 GB DDR4 VLP RDIMMs have a printed circuit board (PCB) height of just 18.75 mm or 0.74 inch, making them perfectly suitable for industrial/networking servers with small footprints and small enclosures. They may be placed vertically within blade servers to save space and maximize air flow to dissipate heat effectively and keep the system cool.

RDIMMs: Serving Up Stability, Scalability, Serviceability

Registered DIMMs are no doubt the much better option for server applications. With a registering clock driver (RCD) buffering command and address signals between the host memory controller and the DRAMs or memory chips on the DIMM, an RDIMM delivers better signal integrity for overall high performance and stability. RDIMMs can handle increased workloads at lower total cost of ownership with their comprehensive reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features.

Conclusion

DDR4 remains the essential memory standard even in the face of emerging advances in edge, 5G, and IIoT technologies. ATP continues to improve upon its DDR4 offerings with its new higher-density VLP RDIMMs. Data generation and processing will remain unabated in the coming years, and the new 64 GB VLP RDIMMs are poised to tackle the faster, more intelligent, memory-intensive future.