Future of Persistent Memory in Form Factors Architectures with CXL

Emergence of serial-attached protocols like CXL and OpenCAPI. It is possible to connect DRAM based devices in the same physical slot as NAND Flash SSD. This paper discusses which pieces of existing NVMe SSD standards, like Mechanical form-factors, management interface protocols, power mode and Thermal profiles, can be reused for DRAM based CXL Memory devices. This will not only save cost, but also accelerate the adoption because you can reuse existing software eco-system and extend it for managing any type of device, whether storage or memory. Few examples include: - Expanding power and Thermal profiles in SFF-TA-1006 and SFF-TA-1023 for DRAM devices - Remapping optional signals in EDSFF SFF-TA-1009 spec to enable Persistent Memory functions. - Remapping few NVMe-MI command for DRAM based Memory modules.