Micron Technology Inc. released the industry's first DDR3 load-reduced, dual-inline memory module (LRDIMM) early this month.

The new LRDIMMs will be manufactured using Micron's 1.35-volt, 2-gigabit (Gb) 50-nanometer DDR3 memory chips. By reducing load on the server memory bus, Micron's LRDIMMs provide the option to support higher data frequencies and increased memory capacity.

Micron's LRDIMMs currently use Inphi's isolation memory buffer chip in place of a register to reduce the bus load when transferring data between the memory and processor. Micron's new LRDIMMs reduce this load by 50 percent for a dual-rank module and 75 percent for a quad-rank module, compared to today's standard DDR3 server modules, registered DIMMs (RDIMMs).

Using RDIMMs, a typical server system can accommodate up to three quad-rank 16GB RDIMMS per processor. However, that same system can support up to nine quad-rank 16GB LRDIMMS per processor, pushing the memory capacity from 48GB to 144GB.

Measuring performance levels, Micron's 16GB LRDIMM offers an increase of 57 percent in system memory bandwidth, when compared to an RDIMM. And as server power consumption continues to be a top concern for customers, Micron's LRDIMMs will also operate at the industry's lowest 1.35-volts.

"With the rise in virtualization, our new 16GB modules allow customers to easily expand their memory capacity. While traditional RDIMMs limit the amount of memory that can be accommodated due to their loading profile, LRDIMMs eliminate that problem by reducing the module load," said Robert Feurle, vice president of DRAM marketing at Micron, in a statement.

Micron is currently sampling an 8GB LRDIMM with select enablers. Mass production of its 16GB LRDIMMs is expected to begin in 2010.