The key to building an ideal server is balance, and this is why CXL is important, since it helps overcome the inflexible nature of modern server architectures. In this episode of Utilizing CXL, Stephen Foskett and Craig Rodgers talk with Ahmad Danesh of Astera Labs about the company’s CXL-based memory expansion technology. Although there are many CXL memory expansion chips coming to market, the industry is keen on interoperability testing to make sure everything works as expected. These products are differentiated based on their reliability, performance, and security, including trusted hardware and encryption. This is especially important with AMD Genoa having recently been launched and Intel Sapphire Rapids coming very soon. Security is very important as memory moves further from the CPU and is shared and pooled among multiple servers. Ahmad also suggests that CXL memory can perform as well as local memory, so specialized memory tiering software might not always be needed. But this technology also allows other types of memory to be used, including non-DDR5 DRAM and potentially future non-DRAM memory.

• Stephen Foskett, Publisher of Gestalt IT and Organizer of Tech Field Day. Find Stephen’s writing at GestaltIT.com and on Twitter at @SFoskett. 
• Craig Rodgers, Solutions Architect at Camlin Group. Connect with Craig on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter at @CraigRodgersms.
• Ahmad Danesh, Sr. Director, Product Management at Astera Labs. Connect with Ahmad on LinkedIn.

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