July 3, 2000
(Computerworld)
IBM last week announced a chip technology that it said can effectively double the memory in a PC server.
Called Memory Expansion Technology (MXT), the new memory-controller chip will reside between the processor and the main memory on a server's motherboard.
The most frequently accessed data is stored on the controller chip for rapid transmission. The controller chip sends data that is used less frequently to the computer's memory, rather than to a slower-performing disk as in current server architectures.
IBM's research division claimed that MXT has the ability to double the memory of the standard PC based on Intel Corp. technology.
The first servers to use the new technology should be available by early next year, IBM said.
The company also said that data stored by the device can be decompressed in nanoseconds.
To make it work, Big Blue adapted an available serial-processing algorithm that can be built directly into the chip, said Ellen Yoffa, IBM's director of personal and scalable systems research.
"Others have tried to boost memory in the past, but the reason they failed where we succeeded is (that) they attempted to do this using software," she said.
Performance Boost
With IBM's approach, Yoffa said, performance should be much faster "because you no longer have to go off to a disk to retrieve your data."
The added processing demands required by the MXT technology create a maximum overhead of 3% on a system's resources, she noted.
ServerWorks Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based company that develops logic chips for Intel-based systems, has signed a five-year deal under which it plans to incorporate MXT into servers and eventually into handheld and other devices for IBM and rival vendors. "Our goal is to have MXT pervasive throughout the industry," Yoffa said.
Mark Melenovsky, an analyst at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass., called the new technology "a definite innovation."
He said IBM's willingness to let an independent company such as ServerWorks market MXT to other vendors gives the technology the potential to become a standard.
But Melenovsky said MXT's pricing will be key to its success. If the cost is too high, server vendors might decide it's cheaper in the short term just to add more physical memory, he said.
Raju Vegesna, president and CEO of ServerWorks, said his company intends to keep the price low in order to push the chip as a standard.
According to Vegesna, the company's high-end chip set could be sold to computer vendors for no more than $265 per system.
Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at technology research and consulting firm Insight 64 in Saratoga, Calif., predicted that the retail markup will be minimal because the chips will be available to rival vendors as well as to IBM.
He also said the chips could make PCs more affordable, since "memory's the most expensive part of a system."
The real challenge will be convincing computer manufacturers that the chips deliver the benefits of more memory without soaking up so much processing power that there's no real benefit to users, Brookwood explained. "It's really pretty complicated stuff under the hood. That's why no one's done it," he said.
The chips initially are being designed for use in Intel-based servers such as IBM's Netfinity line, but the company is also looking to incorporate the technology into data transaction and Web application servers and wireless devices.
Frank Garvin, vice president of network and systems engineering at Pleasanton, Calif.-based MegaPath Networks Inc., a Digital Subscriber Line provider, said doubled memory could reduce costs and add efficiency for server-driven businesses.
"When you start talking about Web hosting - and quite candidly, that's an area we're looking at - I can see where this chip would be most helpful," Garvin said. "We'd definitely take a look at it."