Samsung Electronics CXL Solution Briefing on the 18th
'Fast Processing Speed + High Capacity' Spotlighted in the AI Era
"The Compute Express Link (CXL) market is expected to open from the second half of this year. The CXL 3.1-based market will become full-fledged in 2026, and by 2028, it will be a booming market."
On the 18th, Jang-seok Choi, Executive Vice President and Head of New Business Planning Team at Samsung Electronics Memory Business Division, made this statement during a briefing on 'Samsung Electronics CXL Solutions' at the Samsung Electronics press room in Taepyeong-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul.
Choi said, "Although CPUs supporting CXL have been available since last year, the market has not yet been activated," adding, "The time when customers can build systems using CXL-based products and software optimized for applications will likely be around 2027 to 2028."
Jangseok Choi, Executive Director and Head of New Business Planning Team at Samsung Electronics Memory Division, held a briefing on the topic of 'Samsung Electronics CXL Solution' on the 18th at the Samsung Electronics Press Room in Taepyeong-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul. [Photo by Samsung Electronics]
CXL stands for 'Compute Express Link,' a next-generation interface that efficiently connects various devices such as CPUs, Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), and storage devices to enable faster computation processing. It can overcome the capacity and performance limitations of DRAM, emerging as a next-generation solution in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Choi explained, "If High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is like building multiple highways to allow data to travel quickly back and forth, CXL is like expanding several roads to add more capacity," adding, "CXL not only enhances performance but also offers unparalleled capacity expansion."
The CXL DRAM solution, which coexists with existing DRAM and can expand bandwidth and capacity within the system, is expected to gain more attention in the next-generation computing market where explosive data processing is required. To expand the capacity of data centers or servers, additional servers had to be added, but now capacity can be conveniently expanded by simply plugging CMM-D into the slot where Solid State Drives (SSD) were previously installed in existing servers.
In particular, Samsung Electronics' 'CXL 2.0 DRAM,' developed and completed in May last year, is the industry's first to support the 'memory pooling' function. 'Memory pooling' is a technology that creates a pool by grouping multiple CXL memories on a server platform, allowing each host to allocate memory from the pool as needed. This enables the full capacity of CXL memory to be used without idle areas, reducing data transmission bottlenecks. In data centers, efficient memory usage also reduces server operating costs, enabling a reduction in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Since starting the development of the industry's first CXL-based DRAM product in May 2021, Samsung Electronics has led the industry by successfully developing the highest capacity 512GB CMM-D, the industry's first CMM-D 2.0, and more. This demonstrates their determination not to lose leadership in the CXL market.
At the global semiconductor conference 'MemCon 2024' held in March, Samsung Electronics showcased various CXL-based solutions including CMM-D, a CXL-based DRAM; CMM-H (Hybrid), which uses both DRAM and NAND; and CMM-B (Box), a memory pooling solution. Additionally, in the second quarter of this year, they launched a 256GB CMM-D product supporting CXL 2.0 and are conducting verification with major customers. Furthermore, Samsung possesses the industry's first CXL infrastructure certified by Linux vendor Red Hat, allowing the Samsung Memory Research Center to verify all server components from CXL-related products to software.
Samsung Electronics is one of the 15 board member companies that formed the 'CXL Consortium,' which discusses CXL standardization and the evolution of interfaces. It is the only memory company selected as a board member, playing a role in advancing and standardizing CXL technology. Since the consortium's inception in 2019, Samsung has actively worked with global major data centers, servers, chipset, and memory companies to expand the CXL ecosystem.
Choi expressed confidence, saying, "It is true that differentiation is difficult when looking at each company individually in the CXL market," but added, "What matters is who has tested with more customers and launched products first to match customer needs. We have delivered and evaluated more products with more customers and have sufficient know-how."
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