November 19, 2008 -- Spansion Inc. today released further details surrounding the architecture and performance of its Spansion EcoRAM solution. The Spansion EcoRAM technology creates a new class of memory for read-intensive applications in areas like internet services, analytics, oil and gas, government, bioinformatics, and business intelligence by employing an innovative memory subsystem architecture that enables advancements in low power consumption, high performance and capacity.

The Spansion EcoRAM architecture is designed to leverage existing and upcoming high-speed connectivity solutions from both Intel and AMD to improve performance. Because the architecture uses standard x86 servers with Spansion EcoRAM memory, commodity servers are able to potentially support an additional half Terabyte (512 Gigabytes) of main memory storage in a single standard form factor (1U) server using 32 Gigabyte Spansion EcoRAM dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs). At the same time, this architecture is intended to deliver read performance of up to 4.0 Gigabytes per second (GB/s) in a 4-socket platform, which is comparable with DRAM read performance.

In terms of read latency, Spansion EcoRAM memory is expected to provide a read latency of 250 nanoseconds (ns) or less, compared to hard disk drives, which have far greater multi-millisecond latencies, or solid state drives which have multi-microsecond latencies. At the same time, write bandwidth capability of the architecture is projected at up to 300 MB/s, making it well- suited for read-intensive workloads in vertical market segments.

Spansion licensed the Virident GreenGateway Platform to create the Spansion EcoRAM Accelerator -- an innovative memory controller -- in a standard x86 processor socket. The integration of the Spansion EcoRAM Accelerator allows the system to read from Spansion EcoRAM DIMMs at DRAM speeds and latency. The architecture leverages memory access techniques that have been used in the high-end server world to enable microprocessors to use system memory more efficiently. This approach delivers an overall increase in system capability and application performance, all while helping to significantly reduce the costs of server sprawl, inefficient power consumption, and associated infrastructure expenses. The initial solution will support Linux-based environments.

Go to the Spansion Inc. website for product details.