Hybrid Cube Memory Specification Finalized, Will Offer 15X Increase In Bandwidth
"Hybrid Memory Cube" sounds like something out of a 80s-era science fiction movie, but as these things tend to go, sci-fi often leads to reality. More than 100 developer and adopter members of the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (HMCC) today announced they've reached consensus for the global standard that will deliver a much-anticipated, disruptive memory computing solution. Developed in only 17 months, the final specification marks the turning point for designers in a wide range of segments-from networking and high-performance computing, to industrial and beyond-to begin designing Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) technology into future products.
A major breakthrough with HMC is the long-awaited utilization of advanced technologies to combine highperformance logic with state-of-the-art DRAM. With this first HMC milestone reached so quickly, consortium members have elected to extend their collaborative effort to achieve agreement on the next generation of HMC interface standards. Here's a bit more as told by the entity: "As envisioned, HMC capabilities will leap beyond current and near-term memory architectures in the areas of performance, packaging and power efficiency. One of the primary challenges facing the industry-and a key motivation for forming the HMCC-is that the memory bandwidth required by high-performance computers and next-generation networking equipment has increased beyond what conventional memory architectures can efficiently provide. The term "memory wall" has been used to describe this challenge. Breaking through the memory wall requires an architecture such as HMC that can provide increased density and bandwidth with significantly lower power consumption."
Altera, ARM, Cray, Fujitsu, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, HP, IBM, Marvell, Micron Technology, National Instruments, Open-Silicon, Samsung, and more are onboard, and it could mark the start of quite the breakthrough for memory. It's about time we had a reason to expect memory benchmarks to explode, wouldn't you say?
A major breakthrough with HMC is the long-awaited utilization of advanced technologies to combine highperformance logic with state-of-the-art DRAM. With this first HMC milestone reached so quickly, consortium members have elected to extend their collaborative effort to achieve agreement on the next generation of HMC interface standards. Here's a bit more as told by the entity: "As envisioned, HMC capabilities will leap beyond current and near-term memory architectures in the areas of performance, packaging and power efficiency. One of the primary challenges facing the industry-and a key motivation for forming the HMCC-is that the memory bandwidth required by high-performance computers and next-generation networking equipment has increased beyond what conventional memory architectures can efficiently provide. The term "memory wall" has been used to describe this challenge. Breaking through the memory wall requires an architecture such as HMC that can provide increased density and bandwidth with significantly lower power consumption."
Altera, ARM, Cray, Fujitsu, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, HP, IBM, Marvell, Micron Technology, National Instruments, Open-Silicon, Samsung, and more are onboard, and it could mark the start of quite the breakthrough for memory. It's about time we had a reason to expect memory benchmarks to explode, wouldn't you say?
