Breaking the memory wall! Innosilicon launches the world's first GDDR6X video memory technology

Recently, at the 2022 Zhuhai Software and Integrated Circuit Industry Annual Conference and Digital Economy Innovation and Industry Development Forum, Innosilicon officially released the world's first GDDR6X high-speed video memory technology. Currently, this technology has supported the innovative breakthroughs and mass production of Fenghua 4K-class high-performance GPUs, and will further empower high-performance computing products and help global partners succeed.

The first GDDR6/6X Combo IP launched this time can achieve an ultra-high rate of 21Gbps for a single DQ, and the system bandwidth exceeds 5Tb/s at a 256-bit width, which is 5 times the maximum bandwidth of DDR4/LPDDR4 with the same bit width. The overall bandwidth performance is close to HBM, but the cost is much lower than HBM. It is the most cost-effective high-bandwidth storage solution currently, which can effectively promote high-performance computing and artificial intelligence products such as GPU/NPU/DPU to break the memory wall, and can be called a killer in the HPC/Graphics field.

It is reported that GDDR6X uses single-ended PAM4 technology in industrial mass-produced products for the first time, achieving higher data rates and bringing greater design challenges. Compared with PAM2 of NRZ signals, PAM4 technology can reduce the base frequency of the signal by half, thereby greatly reducing the signal attenuation at the base frequency. In serial differential interface technology, PAM4 has been widely used in 56G/112G high-speed SerDes; in DDR single-ended signal technology, due to higher crosstalk and noise control requirements, PAM4 has not been truly used in industrial products in the past. In the process of GDDR6X technology research and development, in order to ensure the correct transmission and reception of single-ended PAM4 signals, Xindong used a large number of high-performance IO interface technologies, anti-noise and signal equalization recovery technologies. Therefore, while greatly improving the interface data transmission rate, the actual core frequency of GDDR6X can even be lower than that of the previous generation of technology. This is more than an order of magnitude more difficult than the common serial differential PAM4 technology in the industry.

It is worth noting that Innosilicon's GDDR6X IP and GDDR6 IP are two-in-one compatible . That is to say, chips using this Combo IP can use both GDDR6 memory particles and GDDR6X memory particles, so that customers will have greater selectivity and flexibility. Moreover, Innosilicon's GDDR6/6X Combo IP is not in the design completion stage, nor is it in the tape-out verification stage. Instead, it has been successfully mass-produced and shipped in multiple advanced FinFet processes. It is a very mature IP technology that can guarantee mass production. It is also the world's first silicon-verified GDDR6X ultra-bandwidth solution jointly launched by Innosilicon and Micron. Micron praised this technology on its official website, "Innosilicon's GDDR6X-based PHY chip uses the PAM4 signaling mechanism to further improve the high efficiency and data rate required for artificial intelligence applications. The cooperation between the two parties demonstrates the high practicality of GDDR6X and changes the landscape of artificial intelligence through memory."

Equipped with GDDR6X independent innovative technology, Innosilicon's first 4K-class high-performance GPU "Fenghua 1" has achieved a performance breakthrough in graphics GPUs, greatly improving the existing graphics GPU capabilities and user experience, and has been successfully applied to desktop and server fields. From DDR5/4/3 to LPDDR5X/5/4 and GDDR6X/6, Innosilicon has also become the only IP manufacturer that has achieved full coverage of DDR series high-bandwidth technologies, providing important technical support for a wide range of high-performance chip companies around the world, and enabling global partners to achieve product success.