This document discusses developments in persistent memory technology. It begins by explaining why persistent memory is needed to address limitations of DRAM and NAND flash storage. It then outlines how persistent memory can solve problems by providing DRAM-like latency with persistence even after power loss. The document also discusses how persistent memory can develop new markets in applications like databases, analytics and storage. It provides examples of early case studies showing performance improvements using persistent memory. Finally, it discusses the requirements and next steps for designing systems that fully leverage persistent memory capabilities.

1. DEVELOPMENTS IN PERSISTENT MEMORY
GORDON PATRICK, DIRECTOR OF ENTERPRISE COMPUTING MEMORY, MICRON TECHNOLOGY
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2.  Overview
 Why Persistent Memory (PM)
 What problems does PM solve?
 Developing new markets
 Key Segment Focus
 Initial Case Studies
 Designing in persistence
 Portfolio Considerations
 Ecosystem Requirements
DEVELOPMENTS IN PERSISTENT MEMORY

3. WHY PERSISTENT
MEMORY?
3

4. MEMORY / STORAGE TECHNOLOGY HIERARCHY
Nanoseconds Microseconds Milliseconds
Storage I/O Memory Persistent Memory
Memory Control
(Load/Store)
I/O Control
(Read/Write)
Hard Disk Drive
(Spinning Media)
SATA/SAS SSD
(NAND)
NVME SSD
(NAND)
NVME SSD
(3D XPoint™
memory)
DIMMs
(3D XPoint™
memory)ASP/Bit
Latency
NVDIMM-N
(DRAM/NAND)
RDIMM/LRDIMM
(DRAM)
Cost
Optimized
PM
Performance
Optimized
PM

5. IMPACT OF PERSISTENT MEMORY ON APPLICATION
PERFORMANCE
40ns
40ns
85,000ns
85,000ns
40ns
DRAM + NAND-Based NVMe SSD
DRAM + NVDIMM Block Mode
DRAM + NVDIMM Direct Mode
40ns
40ns
25,000ns
25,000ns
40ns
40ns
40ns
40ns
40ns
40ns
NV Direct
NV Block
NVMe
 Data committed to persistent
media written to NAND through
the I/O stack
 Data committed to persistent
media written to DRAM on
NVDIMM-N through the I/O stack
 Data committed to persistent
media written to DRAM on
NVDIMM-N through Load/Store
Bus

6. DEVELOPING NEW
MARKETS

7. DEVELOPING NEW MARKETS
Fast Persistent Writes Metadata StorageWrite Back Cache
Scale-out Storage
 VMware® VSAN
 Microsoft®
Azure™
Big Data Analytics
 HortonWorks®
 Cassandra™
In-Memory Databases
 SAP® HANA
 Microsoft® SQL Hekaton
Persistent Memory
Relational
Databases
 Microsoft® SQL
 MySQL™
Trademarked software named to identify primary segment applications. Their use does not represent an endorsement of Micron or Micron NVDIMM products.

8. ROAD TO PERSISTENCE: PHASE 1
 Phase 1 primarily considers NVDIMM-N based
solutions
 Key focus includes performance optimized
acceleration
 DRAM-like latency
 Direct system access to DRAM but not flash
 Block or direct map driver
 Energy source for backup
 JEDEC defined
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Phase 1 Phase 2
Units

9. PERSISTENT MEMORY STACK
 Linux Driver provides scalable
application development
 Applications dynamically
partitioned across memory
space
 Key focus on direct access
persistence
NVDIMM
Application
Driver
obfs
Block Mode
fs pml
Direct Access Mode
L/SL/SR/W
CPU
block
file
mem
pmem
R/W
Kernel
Byte AddressabilityBlock Addressability
File System PMEM LibrariesFile SystemObject

10. Early block-mode results
 2X+ faster database logging performance for
Microsoft® SQL Server
 Up to 4X+ faster SQL cluster replications when
moving the log from NAND flash to HPE NVDIMMs4
 2X+ faster transaction rates in Linux® applications
when using HPE NVDIMMs
 Up to 63% faster exchange speeds
CASE STUDIES: REAL-WORLD RESULTS
Source: HPE public data sheets and media interviews. HPE lab testing on a
DL380 Gen9 Server with E5 2600 v4 processor and 8 GB HPE NVDIMM.
Source: Plexistor public case study. Dual socket XEON E5-2650v3, enterprise
SATA SSD, 64GB DDR4 DIMM vs. 64GB DDR4 NVDIMM-N
MongoDB
 6-9X latency improvement
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
Avg. Latency 95th percentile 99th percentile
Linux XFS on Flash Plexistor on NVDIMM
Latency(µs)

11. DESIGNING IN
PERSISTENCE

12. ROAD TO PERSISTENCE: PHASE 2
Latency
Enduranc
e
Volatility
Cost
Low High
Feature Set Tradeoffs
DRAM Baseline
NAND Baseline
Cost-Driven Feature Set
Performance Feature Set
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Phase 1 Phase 2
Units

13. REQUIREMENTS & NEXT STEPS
Summary
 Performance optimized Persistent
Memory solutions available today
 Now established as a new
complementary category in the
memory / storage hierarchy
 Next phase of development based
on emerging memory, controller
design and protocols will drive full
system persistence
 Developers can maximize
performance by taking advantage of
direct access to persistent memory
NVDIMM
Application
Driver
obfs
Block Mode
fs pml
Direct Access Mode
L/SL/SR/W
CPU
R/W
Byte AddressabilityBlock Addressability