Ok, the presentation finally ended. First, this is not a product yet, but a proof of concept. The product should appear before year end and it will be for random access server applications only. Later the product will be expanded to include other devices/applications. I assume they did the presentation to get the wheels rolling. I kind of got the feeling that there aren't many problems still needing to be killed.
They did a search demo with two identical computers, the only difference being in the memory used. The EcoRam used about 20% of the system power used by the Dram machine but took a little longer to run( about 80% of the Dram speed). Berti said that the EcoRAM used was a couple of months old and newer forms ran much faster. He said that the production version would run faster than current Dram.
They had a slide that showed the memory density doubling with each reduction in line size. Initial size being 32GBs by the end of the year and then doubling to 64GBs on 45nm, next year, and so on out to 22nm.
The number of writes was given at about 10M which is what it has been all along for MirrorBit. That translates into about 10 years of usage when wear leveling is factored in. There will be no delays when writing data as the write is apparently as fast/faster than the system overall. As the EcoRam nears its EOL Virident will notify the system long before problems occur. Virident has been doing extensive life cycle testing for awhile.
It sounds like nothing will be able to compete with EcoRAM for awhile which should finally give SPSN a truly differentiated/distinct product. We're talking NV memory and NAND being serial is automatically out of contention for random access applications. Also, Strata Flash NOR wont be viable as Eclipse/EcoRAM is basically MirrorBit NOR and ORNAND. Strata Flash doesn't have the right characteristics to do what EcoRam is trying to do.
There will be no competition for this product which should have application in 10% of the server world, at least initially. Once random server applications have been proven the plan is to expand into other server applications. Actually, if EcoRAM costs less than DRAM and runs as fast while acting like the ultimate cache/memory and uses way less power, it seems like an obvious Dram replacement, but that's probably getting too far ahead.
The advantages to the product are the lower initial cost(both product and infrastructure), lower power consumption(20% of DRAM and ancillary benefits, fewer computers needed, less cooling) and higher density of the memory.
Virident is looking into ways to use all the possibilities that EcoRAM presents such as data center recovery in less than a minute from a power outage instead of the 5 hours it can currently take.
If this works, it should shake the industry up quite a lot.
Sorry, that's all I remember. If you can, give a listen to the demo, it's a nice contrast to the usual SPSN dog and ponies. |
