AMD buys data center memory optimization startup Mext
Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said today it has snapped up the flash memory optimization startup Mext Corp. in an effort to help its customers solve their growing headaches around memory supply constraints in artificial intelligence data centers.
The price of the acquisition was likely small since the terms of the deal were not disclosed, but AMD said the startup’s technology can help its customers to enhance system efficiency, lower their operating costs and deploy large-scale AI workloads much more rapidly.
Mext is the creator of an AI-native memory tiering technology that shifts infrequently accessed data to NAND-based flash storage rather than keeping it held within expensive dynamic random-access memory. Flash storage can cost orders of magnitude less than standard memory.
The startup’s technology is based on a predictive memory engine that continuously analyzes memory access patterns and uses AI algorithms to try and guess which data stored in flash systems might be needed next. It proactively transfers that data back into the DRAM when it believes it might be needed, so that applications can access it without any latency, thus ensuring the same level of performance for AI applications.
