Marvell Introduces Breakthrough Structera CXL Product Line to Address Server Memory Bandwidth and Capacity Challenges in Cloud Data Centers

Rhea-AI Summary

Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) has launched the Structera product line of Compute Express Link (CXL) devices to address memory challenges in cloud data centers. The line includes two families: Structera A CXL near-memory accelerators for high-bandwidth applications, and Structera X CXL memory-expansion controllers for high-capacity needs.

Key features include:

• Integration of Arm Neoverse processors
• Inline compression
• Four memory channels
• Support for up to 12 DDR4 memory modules
• 5nm manufacturing processes

The products aim to improve server efficiency, reduce e-waste, and optimize resource utilization for memory-intensive workloads in cloud environments.

Positive

• Introduction of innovative Structera CXL product line addressing memory challenges in cloud data centers
• Structera A accelerators integrate 16 Arm Neoverse V2 cores, supporting up to 200 GB/sec memory bandwidth and 4TB memory capacity
• Structera X controllers support up to 12 DDR4 memory modules, enabling module recycling and reducing e-waste
• First in the industry to incorporate hardware-based inline memory compression
• Potential to significantly improve server efficiency and reduce costs for data center operators

Negative

• Products will only sample in the fourth quarter of 2024, indicating a delay in market availability and potential revenue generation

Insights

Technology Analyst

Marvell's introduction of the Structera CXL product line represents a significant leap forward in addressing memory challenges in cloud data centers. The integration of Arm Neoverse processors, inline compression and four memory channels in a single product is truly groundbreaking.

The Structera A CXL near-memory accelerator family is particularly noteworthy. By optimizing for high-bandwidth memory applications like deep learning and ML/AI, Marvell is positioning itself at the forefront of the rapidly growing AI infrastructure market. The ability to increase compute cores by 25% and memory bandwidth by 50% with a single device could significantly boost performance for memory-intensive AI workloads.

The Structera X CXL memory-expansion controller family's support for up to 12 DDR4 memory modules is an ingenious approach to sustainability. By enabling the recycling of DDR4 modules, Marvell is not only reducing e-waste but also offering a cost-effective solution for data centers to maximize server memory capacity. This could result in substantial cost savings, potentially up to $1000 per server, while addressing growing concerns about data center sustainability.

The incorporation of hardware-based inline memory compression adhering to Google and Meta specifications submitted to the OCP demonstrates Marvell's commitment to industry standards and interoperability. This feature could significantly enhance memory efficiency across various cloud platforms.

Overall, Marvell's Structera product line positions the company as a key player in the evolving CXL ecosystem, potentially driving widespread adoption of CXL technology in cloud data centers. This could lead to increased market share and revenue growth for Marvell in the coming years.

Financial Analyst

Marvell's launch of the Structera CXL product line could have significant financial implications for the company. The cloud data center market is experiencing rapid growth, driven by increasing demand for AI and machine learning capabilities. By addressing critical memory bandwidth and capacity challenges, Marvell is tapping into a potentially lucrative market segment.

The Structera A accelerators, with their ability to improve performance of high memory-bandwidth applications, could see strong demand from cloud service providers looking to optimize their AI infrastructure. This could translate into a new revenue stream for Marvell, potentially boosting its top line in the coming years.

The Structera X controllers offer a unique value proposition by enabling the reuse of DDR4 modules. This could resonate well with cost-conscious data center operators, potentially leading to rapid adoption. The potential cost savings of thousands of dollars per server could be a compelling selling point, driving volume sales.

Marvell's custom CXL silicon development for cloud operators is another avenue for revenue growth. By tailoring solutions to specific customer needs, Marvell could secure long-term contracts and strengthen its relationships with key cloud providers.

However, it's important to note that the products won't be sampling until Q4 2024, meaning significant revenue impact may not be seen until 2025 or later. Additionally, the competitive landscape in the CXL market is likely to intensify, which could pressure margins in the future.

Investors should monitor the adoption rate of CXL technology and Marvell's ability to capture market share in this emerging segment. The company's success in this area could potentially drive stock appreciation in the medium to long term.

Environmental Sustainability Expert

Marvell's Structera CXL product line, particularly the Structera X family, represents a significant step forward in addressing e-waste concerns in the data center industry. The ability to recycle DDR4 DIMMs from decommissioned servers is a game-changer from an environmental perspective.

Consider this: millions of functional DDR4 DIMMs are expected to become e-waste in the coming years as data centers upgrade to newer technologies. By enabling the reuse of these modules, Marvell's solution could potentially divert thousands of tons of electronic waste from landfills.

This approach aligns perfectly with the circular economy concept, extending the lifecycle of existing hardware components. It's not just about reducing waste; it's about maximizing the value and utility of resources already in circulation.

Moreover, the energy efficiency improvements offered by the Structera products are noteworthy. For instance, the Structera A device can improve memory bandwidth power efficiency from 1W to 0.83W per GB/sec, with further improvements possible when using multiple devices. In the context of power-hungry data centers, these efficiency gains could translate to significant energy savings and reduced carbon emissions over time.

Marvell's initiative sets a new benchmark for sustainability in the semiconductor industry. It demonstrates that technological advancement and environmental responsibility can go hand in hand. This could potentially influence other players in the industry to prioritize sustainability in their product development, creating a ripple effect of positive environmental impact across the tech sector.

As investors and consumers increasingly prioritize environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, Marvell's focus on sustainability could enhance its brand value and appeal to a growing segment of environmentally conscious customers and investors.

• New product line is the industry's first to integrate Arm® Neoverse® processors, inline compression, and four memory channels.
• Structera^™ A CXL near-memory accelerator family is optimized to address high-bandwidth memory applications such as deep learning and ML/AI on general-purpose servers.
• Structera^™ X CXL memory-expansion controller family is the first to support up to 12 DDR4 memory modules, enabling module recycling to reduce e-waste and maximize server memory capacity for applications such as in-memory databases.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRVL), a leader in data infrastructure semiconductor solutions, today launched the Marvell^® Structera^™ product line of Compute Express Link^® (CXL^®) devices that enable cloud data center operators to overcome memory performance and scaling challenges in general-purpose servers.

To address memory-intensive applications, data center operators add extra servers to get higher memory bandwidth and higher memory capacity. The compute capabilities from the added processors are typically not utilized for these applications, making the servers inefficient from cost and power perspectives. The CXL industry standard addresses this challenge by enabling new architectures that can efficiently add memory to general-purpose servers.

The Structera product line comprises two CXL device families that are optimized for different use cases. The Structera A CXL near-memory accelerators are a new category of devices that integrate server-class processor cores and multiple memory channels with CXL to address high-bandwidth memory applications such as deep learning recommendation models (DLRM) and machine learning. The Structera X CXL memory-expansion controllers enable terabytes of memory to be added to general-purpose servers and address high-capacity memory applications such as in-memory databases. The Structera CXL device families are the industry's first to support four memory channels, integrate inline compression and use 5nm manufacturing processes.

In addition to the Structera A and X standard products, Marvell develops custom CXL silicon for cloud operators that is optimized for their unique architectures and workloads.

A New CXL Use Case: ML/AI Acceleration

The Structera A accelerators integrate 16 Arm^® Neoverse^® V2 cores and are optimized to improve the performance of high memory-bandwidth applications such as DLRM. DLRM is characterized by both sparse and dense memory operations. Sparse operations may hit a memory wall, in which memory bandwidth is insufficient for the available compute. The Structera A 2504 accelerator, the first product in the family, supports up to 200 GB/sec memory bandwidth and 4TB of memory capacity¹.

For a DLRM server using a single 64-core processor, adding a single Structera A device would increase the number of compute cores by 25% (64 vs 80), aggregate memory bandwidth by 50% (400 GB/sec vs 600 GB/sec), total memory by up to 4TB, and memory bandwidth per core by 25% (6.25 GB/sec vs. 7.5 GB/sec). It would also improve memory bandwidth power efficiency from 1W to 0.83W per GB/sec. Adding two Structera A devices would increase compute cores by 50%, double aggregate memory bandwidth, increase memory capacity by up to 8TB, increase memory bandwidth per core by 50%, and improve memory bandwidth power efficiency to 0.75W² per GB/sec.

The Structera X product family, by contrast, is designed for expanding memory capacity per server to address high-capacity memory applications. The Structera X devices are the industry's first to support four channels of DDR4 and DDR5 memory and support up to three DDR4 dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs) per channel (3DPC) for maximizing memory capacity per controller and server node. The devices are also the first CXL memory-expansion products that can simultaneously support two server CPUs to optimize power, space and memory utilization.

The Structera X 2404 enables operators to recycle their DDR4 DIMMs from decommissioned general-purpose servers. Millions of functional DDR4 DIMMs are expected to become e-waste over the next few years as operators replace existing general-purpose servers with new ones utilizing DDR5³. Using "free" DDR4 DIMMs to expand the capacity in these servers reduces capex by thousands of dollars per general-purpose server⁴. Repurposing decommissioned DDR4 DIMMs also addresses data center sustainability goals.

Structera products are the first in the industry to incorporate hardware-based inline memory compression that adheres to the Google and Meta specifications that have been submitted to the Open Compute Project (OCP).

"Memory access is a multifaceted problem and cloud service providers differ substantially when it comes to their goals and deployment strategies for CXL," said Bob Wheeler, principal analyst at Wheeler's Network. "Marvell has developed a long-term vision for CXL that capitalizes on this diversity of uses and will encourage hyperscalers and others to adopt CXL to scale the so-called memory wall."

"Our new Structera CXL product line will be a game-changer in enabling optimal resource utilization and lowering energy consumption for scaling memory-intensive workloads in the cloud," said Raghib Hussain, president of products and technologies at Marvell. "Marvell is delivering on the promise of CXL and our commitment to customers to help them solve their most challenging issues. CXL will continue to be a critical technology enabler for accelerated infrastructure across our compute, connectivity and storage portfolios." 

Broad Ecosystem Support

Several companies are developing plans to support the new Structera CXL product line.

"As CXL matures, it unlocks opportunities for innovation through disaggregation, enabling transformative applications across the entire data center ecosystem," said Raghu Nambiar, corporate vice president, Data Center Ecosystems and Solutions, AMD. "Our collaboration with Marvell is at the heart of ensuring our commitment to this ecosystem; delivering the performance and energy efficiency needed to deploy and scale next generation infrastructure to power the most demanding business critical and AI applications."

"The new Marvell Structera CXL controller family combines Marvell's compression technology and SoC expertise with the performance and efficiency benefits of Neoverse V2 in a way that exemplifies the pace of innovation only made possible by Arm Neoverse," said Mohamed Awad, senior vice president and general manager, Infrastructure Line of Business, Arm. "It's exactly this type of optimized processing that reduces energy consumption and enables the high-performance infrastructure that AI demands."

Debendra Das Sharma, Chief I/O Architect at Intel said, "Intel is delighted that Marvell is contributing to the evolving CXL ecosystem, including the utilization of memory expanders for capacity and bandwidth expansion solutions. These solutions enable the reuse of DDR4 DIMMs for memory capacity expansion while also increasing the memory bandwidth available to the CPU cores.  With support for CXL 2.0, Intel Xeon 6.0 product family is at the forefront of these developments and appreciates the collaboration with Marvell to bring these solutions to market."

"Marvell is an important CXL ecosystem partner to Micron, and our work together will help advance the adoption of memory expansion in the industry. Our collaboration on memory interoperability will enable flexible and scalable memory resources to match increasing processor core counts and data-intensive workloads," said Vijay Nain, senior director of CXL Product Management at Micron. "By driving higher memory capacity and lower latency, data center operators can benefit from reduced capital and operating expenses." 

Product Features

Marvell Structera A 2504

• PCIe 5.0/CXL2.0 x16
• Four channels of DRAM DDR5 6400 MT/sec  
• Two memory DIMMs per channel (2DPC) support
• 16 Arm Neoverse V2 cores at 3.2 GHz 
• Inline LZ4 compression and decompression 
• Inline AES-XTS 256-bit encryption and decryption 
• Embedded hardware security module and secure boot 

Marvell Structera X 2404

• PCIe 5.0/CXL2.0 1 x16 or 2 x8
• Four channels of DRAM DDR4 3200 MT/sec 
• Three memory DIMMs per channel (3DPC) support
• Inline LZ4 compression and decompression
• Inline AES-XTS 256-bit encryption and decryption
• Embedded hardware security module and secure boot

 Marvell Structera X 2504

• PCIe 5.0/CXL2.0 1 x16 or 2 x8
• Four channels of DRAM DDR5 6400 MT/sec 
• Two memory DIMMs per channel (2DPC) support
• Inline LZ4 compression and decompression
• Inline AES-XTS 256-bit encryption and decryption
• Embedded hardware security module and secure boot

Availability

Structera A near-memory accelerators, Structera X memory-expansion controllers and custom CXL silicon will sample in the fourth quarter of 2024.  

About Marvell
To deliver the data infrastructure technology that connects the world, we're building solutions on the most powerful foundation: our partnerships with our customers. Trusted by the world's leading technology companies for over 25 years, we move, store, process and secure the world's data with semiconductor solutions designed for our customers' current needs and future ambitions. Through a process of deep collaboration and transparency, we're ultimately changing the way tomorrow's enterprise, cloud, automotive, and carrier architectures transform—for the better.

1. Based on 512GB DIMMs.
2. 64-core processor assumed to operate at 400W and 400GB/sec.
3. Marvell and industry analyst estimates.
4. The hypothetical assumes 4TB of memory added through 32 128GB DIMMs. Pricing per 128GB DDR5 DIMMs is estimated at $280, the approximate market price in June 2024.

Marvell and the M logo are trademarks of Marvell or its affiliates. Please visit www.marvell.com for a complete list of Marvell trademarks. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, any statement that may predict, forecast, indicate or imply future events, results or achievements. Actual events, results or achievements may differ materially from those contemplated in this press release. Forward-looking statements are only predictions and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict, including those described in the "Risk Factors" section of our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other documents filed by us from time to time with the SEC. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and no person assumes any obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information, contact:
Kim Markle
pr@marvell.com

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SOURCE Marvell

FAQ

What is the Marvell Structera product line?

The Marvell Structera product line consists of Compute Express Link (CXL) devices designed to address memory performance and scaling challenges in cloud data center servers. It includes Structera A near-memory accelerators and Structera X memory-expansion controllers.

How does the Structera A 2504 accelerator improve server performance for MRVL?

The Structera A 2504 accelerator can increase compute cores by 25%, aggregate memory bandwidth by 50%, total memory by up to 4TB, and memory bandwidth per core by 25% when added to a single 64-core processor server.

What unique feature does the Structera X 2404 offer for MRVL?

The Structera X 2404 enables operators to recycle DDR4 DIMMs from decommissioned servers, reducing e-waste and potentially saving thousands of dollars per general-purpose server in capital expenditure.

When will Marvell's Structera CXL products be available for sampling?

Marvell (MRVL) plans to have Structera A near-memory accelerators, Structera X memory-expansion controllers, and custom CXL silicon available for sampling in the fourth quarter of 2024.