JEDEC committee has announced that it had formally approved the fully buffered dual in-line memory module (FB-DIMM)) specification for publication. FB-DIMM represents a new memory architecture that is designed to provide enhanced reliability, greater bandwidth, improved scalability and a higher capacity per memory channel compared to current memory solutions.

“Fully Buffered DIMM represents an important new memory architecture, which JEDEC has carefully evaluated.  With the ability to provide at least four times the capacity and significant bandwidth improvements over registered DIMMs, FB-DIMMs enable memory to keep pace with platform requirements, including increasingly faster processors, found in enterprise solutions,” said JEDEC board chairman Mian Quddus (Samsung Semiconductor) said

According to the approved specification, FB-DIMMs utilize standard DDR2 memory and an on-DIMM advanced memory buffer (AMB) chip to produce high-speed, point-to-point signaling and a fast serial bus channel between the memory and the host memory controller. This serial bus also enables a lower pin count for the controller and easier routing for multiple channels across the mainboard, compared to traditional parallel-based memory buses.

Intel’s new server and workstation platforms already support FB-DIMMs, whereas AMD is expected to support the standard with its future AMD Opteron processors.

Future versions of the FB-DIMM will scale up to the higher frequencies provided by the DDR3 generation of DRAMs now being standardized by JEDEC.