Micron Technology announced it has achieved its qualification sample milestone for the Micron CZ120 memory expansion modules using Compute Express Link? (CXL?). Micron is the first in the industry to achieve this milestone, which accelerates the adoption of CXL solutions within the data center to tackle the growing memory challenges stemming from existing data-intensive workloads and emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) workloads.

Using a new and emerging CXL standard, the CZ120 required substantial hardware testing for reliability, quality and performance across CPU providers and OEMs, along with comprehensive software testing for compatibility and compliance with OS and hypervisor vendors. This achievement reflects the collaboration and commitment across the data center ecosystem to validate the advantages of CXL memory. By testing the combined products for interoperability and compatibility across hardware and software, the Micron CZ120 memory expansion modules satisfy the rigorous standards for reliability, quality and performance required by customers’ data centers.

With existing server infrastructure struggling to meet the needs of data-intensive workloads, CXL offers a new architecture to break through legacy data bottlenecks. The Micron CZ120 memory expansion modules using CXL provide the needed building blocks to solve this challenge. These modules offer 128GB and 256GB densities and enable up to 2TB of added capacity at the server level. This higher capacity is complemented by a bandwidth increase of 38 GB/s that stems from saturating each of the PCIe? Gen5 x8 lanes. Traditional SaaS enterprise workloads such as in-memory databases, SQL Server, OLAP and data analytics see a substantial performance increase when the system memory is augmented with CZ120 memory modules, with CZ120 delivering up to a 1.9 times TPC-H benchmark improvement. Enhanced GPU large language model (LLM) inferencing is also facilitated with Micron’s CZ120 memory, leading to faster time to insights and better sustained GPU utilization.

With memory solutions like the CZ120, Micron is not only meeting the current demands of data center workloads but is also paving the way for future advancements that raise the bar for efficiency and performance in the data center.

Micron CZ120 memory expansion modules are available for purchase now in production volume through OEM channels, such as the Supermicro Petascale platform, with additional availability continuing to grow over the next several quarters. For more information about Micron CZ120 memory solutions.