Microchip Launches New CXL for Data Center Computing ™ Intelligent storage controller helps modern CPU optimize application workload

Microchip Launches New CXL for Data Center Computing ™ Intelligent storage controller helps modern CPU optimize application workload
Source: Contributed by the manufacturer • Author: Microchip • 2022-08-08 10:45 • 294 reads • 0 comments
SMC 2000 series can provide DDR storage bandwidth and capacity expansion, reliability and media flexibility for the next generation CPU and SoC to improve artificial intelligence and machine learning performance
Limited by the increase of storage channels for processors, the continuous computing requirements from AI and ML workloads, cloud computing and data analysis deployed on traditional parallel connected memory have reached the limit of efficiency. Microchip Technology Inc. today announced the expansion of its serial connected storage controller product portfolio and the launch of a new product based on Compute Express Link ™ （CXL ™） The new SMC 2000 series intelligent storage controller enables CPU, GPU and SoC to connect DDR4 or DDR5 memory using CXL interface. This solution can provide greater storage bandwidth and higher storage capacity for each core, and enable modern CPUs to optimize application workloads, thereby reducing the overall total cost of ownership of the data center.
Low latency SMC 2000 16x32G and SMC 2000 8x32G storage controllers are designed to conform to CXL 1.1 and CXL 2.0 specifications, DDR4 and DDR5 JEDEC standards, and support PCIe ®  5.0 Normative Speed. The SMC 2000 16x32G is the largest controller in the industry. It has 16 channels, runs at 32 GT/s, and supports two channels of DDR4-3200 or DDR5-4800, which greatly reduces the number of host CPU or SoC pins required for each storage channel.
Typical CXL connected storage modules include 512 GB or more of storage, providing an effective mechanism to increase the available storage bandwidth for processing kernel transactions. This new mode transformation enables data center operators to deploy a wider proportion of memory to CPU core according to actual application requirements, thereby improving memory utilization and reducing total cost of ownership.
Pete Hazen, Vice President of Microchip's Data Center Solutions Business Unit, said: "Microchip is pleased to introduce our first CXL based serial storage controller to the market. We have long recognized that CXL is a disruptive technology and is indispensable to the development of relevant standards. Microchip continues to deepen its efforts in the storage infrastructure market, and is committed to improving the performance and efficiency of a wide range of SoC applications to support the growing storage requirements of high-performance data center applications."
Siamak Tavallaei, chairman of the CXL Alliance, said: "The original intention of establishing the CXL Alliance is to provide an open standard to the industry to improve the performance of the next-generation data center. We are pleased to see that Microchip, as an important contributor to the CXL Alliance, has launched a CXL solution, which helps build a new ecosystem for high-performance heterogeneous computing."
Microchip's SMC 2000 CXL based storage controller adopts innovative design to provide reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAS) functions, which improves the efficiency and performance of the solution to a new level. Through CXL connectivity, the SMC 2000 external storage controller enables the CPU or SoC to utilize multiple media types with different cost, power consumption, and performance metrics without having to integrate a dedicated storage controller for each type of media. For example, by using the SMC 2000 controller with DDR-4 memory, advanced CPUs that only directly support DDR5 can now reuse DDR-4 memory expansion. With the help of double signature authentication and trusted platform support, security debugging and security firmware update, it can be ensured that the SMC 2000 CXL based controller series can also meet all key storage and enterprise application security requirements.
Data center application workload requires that future storage products can provide the same high-performance bandwidth, low latency and reliability as today's parallel DDR based storage products. The CXL platform is one of the most disruptive technologies in the industry in recent years. It brings new standard serial interfaces to CPUs, expands memory beyond parallel DDR interfaces, and provides higher efficiency and performance for data centers.