RESEARCH PAPER: DDR5 Is The Future Of The Data Center

By Patrick Moorhead - May 23, 2022

For the longest time, data centers have been driven by multi-core CPU architectures, answering to the growing demand from digitally transformed businesses and the increasingly digital world we live in. It is no surprise then that as CPU core counts increase, the future of data centers will be driven by the next-generation memory architecture, DDR5. I have been discussing this topic extensively with Micron Technology, Inc. (Micron), and I want to do a deep dive into why DDR5 is the future of the data center and how Micron currently leads the ecosystem. While my focus in on memory in this piece, you can read a bigger picture analysis of the future of the data center that I wrote in October 2021 here. I also sat down with Ryan Baxter, Senior Director of the Data Center Segment at Micron, where we talked about Micron’s leadership in the memory ecosystem, which you can watch here.

You can download the paper by clicking on the logo below:

System Memory Bandwidth Cannot Keep Pace With CPU Core Growth
How DDR5 Differs From DDR4
The Next Generation Of Data Centers
Micron's Leadership
Wrapping Up
Figure 1: DDR5 Memory Module
Figure 2: Theoretical DRAM Bandwidth vs Core Count Trend
Figure 3: DDR4 To DDR5 Bandwidth Comparison

Companies Cited

Micron

Patrick Moorhead

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Patrick founded the firm based on his real-world world technology experiences with the understanding of what he wasn’t getting from analysts and consultants. Ten years later, Patrick is ranked #1 among technology industry analysts in terms of “power” (ARInsights) in “press citations” (Apollo Research). Moorhead is a contributor at Forbes and frequently appears on CNBC. He is a broad-based analyst covering a wide variety of topics including the cloud, enterprise SaaS, collaboration, client computing, and semiconductors. He has 30 years of experience including 15 years of executive experience at high tech companies (NCR, AT&T, Compaq, now HP, and AMD) leading strategy, product management, product marketing, and corporate marketing, including three industry board appointments.