Microsoft pulls Netlist's flashDIMMs into cloudy server embrace

Microsoft has picked Netlist flashDIMMs for a new server platform in its cloud, although it has not made any volume purchase orders yet.

FlashDIMMs are non-volatile memory DIMMs, sold as NVault products by California-based Netlist. Such flash memory is faster to access than PCIe card flash. which, in turn, has a lower latency than SSDs.

Netlist veep for worldwide sales and co-founder, Christopher Lopes, had a canned quote: “After 18 months of extensive collaboration, we are pleased to confirm that our NVault is qualified in the Microsoft Cloud server platform.”

It’s a big deal, potentially.

Netlist is designing aspects of its work with Microsoft into specifications for future NVault tech.

Netlist NVault flash DIMM

The DDR3-based NVault has “exceeded 1.6 million input/output operations per second (IOPS), an 1800 per cent improvement over previous industry-best performance using PCIe SSD, and making NVault the highest-performing NVDIMM in the industry,” according to Netlist.

This does not affect Diablo Technology, whose competing FlashDIMM tech has had shipments stopped by a court injunction arising from a case alleging contract infringement brought by Netlist against Diablo.

Netlist says it has shipped almost half million units of NVDIMMs, more than all of its competitors combined, over the last seven years, and said it is continuing to work with Microsoft. ®