Samsung Semiconductor WeChat official account released the briefing of China Flash Memory Market Summit in 2024, and introduced its latest research and development achievement-CMM-H hybrid storage CXL module in depth. The advent of this innovative module means another important breakthrough for Samsung in the field of storage technology. This module combines DRAM memory with NAND flash memory, and uses CXL as a high-speed interconnection technology, which realizes more efficient connection between CPU and external devices, thus providing higher data throughput and lower transmission delay.
According to the diagram provided by Samsung, CMM-H module can directly transfer block I/O between flash memory and CPU through CXL interface, and can also realize 64 bytes memory I/O transfer through DRAM cache and CXL interface. This flexible way of data transfer enables the module to support fine-grained access, thus reducing the total cost of ownership and becoming a possible persistent memory option.
According to Samsung's roadmap, they plan to launch a prototype CMM-H product in the first half of this year, which is equipped with CXL 1.1 controller based on FPGA and adopts E3.L 2T specification, with a maximum capacity of 4TB and a maximum bandwidth of 8GB/s. For future, the commercial mass-produced CMM-H module will adopt ASIC mature controller, support CXL 3.0 specification, with a maximum capacity of 16TB and a maximum bandwidth of 64GB/s, which is expected to be ready in 2026.
Figure 1: Memory solution CMM-H for Samsung AI and ML systems
In addition, Samsung also plans to launch the second-generation products in the more traditional CXL-D pure memory CXL storage module. It is reported that they plan to launch products with 128GB capacity in the first quarter of next year, using 1b nm process DRAM particles with a speed of 6400MT/s. Subsequently, they will launch products with 512GB and 256GB capacity one after another, enriching the second generation CXL-D module product line to meet the needs of different users.
Figure 2: Samsung's upcoming storage solution CMM-D
