By Larry Cleland, IntelliProp and Arthur Sainio, SMART Modular Technologies
Gen-Z’s memory-centric capabilities have the potential to disrupt the entire datacenter market, and exciting new solutions developed by Consortium members are the first step toward Gen-Z products available to the market.
Continued momentum in this collaborative atmosphere is showcased by the recent joint announcement from Consortium members SMART Modular Technologies and IntelliProp of the 96 GB Gen-Z Memory Module and new Gen-Z IP cores.
According to representatives from SMART, the Gen-Z Memory Module (ZMM) was developed to enable new solution architectures for delivering high levels of performance, software efficiency, and power optimizations. The ZMM operates at data rates up to 40 GB/s and with less than 400 ns load-to-use memory capacity of 96GB of DRAM. Designed to handle advanced workloads, the 
Gen-Z protocol enables data-centric computing with scalable memory pools and resources for real-time analytics and in-memory applications. The SMART ZMM is the first Gen-Z 1.0 Compliant Product available, and the first high-capacity DRAM-only module built to support disaggregated memory.
IntelliProp has developed Gen-Z Intellectual Property and Gen-Z ASSP products. The development of seven Gen-Z 1.0 Core Specification compliant IP cores provides the industry the building blocks necessary for the development of products that support the Gen-Z interface. IntelliProp is using these IP cores in its own “Mamba” DRAM Memory Controller ASSP, which is used in the SMART ZMM, and the Gen-Z Protocol Bridges, which have been displayed in several Consortium demos at industry events. In addition, IntelliProp’s Gen-Z Memory Controllers and Gen-Z Protocol Bridges can be used to develop products required to support Gen-Z memory pools, allowing the disaggregation of memory.
IntelliProp and SMART have collaborated on projects in the past, so joining forces to develop a Gen-Z Memory Module was a natural progression. IntelliProp brought its expertise in Memory Controller development and SMART Modular provided the complex board and module design necessary to support the memory density and high-bandwidth Gen-Z interface.
Gen-Z is the answer
With the massive amount of data now being processed in data centers and at the edge, the need for a new interconnect is crucial. Existing data center architectures focus on processor-centric scaling, where the amount of dynamic RAM (DRAM) available is limited by the number of double data rate (DDR) slots in the server. Furthermore, since that DRAM is locked into a specific server, existing architectures are unable to share memory. If a server is down for maintenance, or simply under-utilized, the memory directly connected to that server will be stranded; inaccessible by any other CPU in the datacenter. Gen-Z breaks down that barrier resulting in true media-centric scaling and Gen-Z fabric allows for resource bays that can be dynamically provisioned between a multitude of CPUs as the demands of the datacenter workload changes. While addressing data center security concerns – all components within the Gen-Z fabric are capable of supporting component level authentication, it also improves utilization within the datacenter and reduces capital and operational expenditures.
The Gen-Z Consortium continues to grow and initial Gen-Z-based product developments by member companies are advancing our mission. Stay tuned for development updates as this adoption of this game-changing technology continues.