Dell's DDR5 CAMM Appears in More Detail, Comes in Several Shapes, Won't be Proprietary
Last week the first details of Dell's CAMM (Compression Attached Memory Module) made an early appearance courtesy of a product leak, but now official details have appeared and the good news is that Dell is saying it won't be a proprietary solution. The Compression Connector looks unlike anything used by consumer computers today and Dell is said to be hoping that it'll be the next industry standard for memory modules, according to PCWorld. The interposer mentioned in the previous news article is also mentioned and allows for a pair of DDR5 SO-DIMMs to be used, albeit with a much taller Z-height.
Dell is apparently planning on getting its CAMM approved by the JEDEC, which is the standards organisation when it comes to memory. However, even if the CAMM format is accepted as a JEDEC standard, Dell holds patents and is likely to charge some kind of royalty fees to interested parties. That said, if it becomes a JEDEC standard, Dell has to follow RAND or Reasonable and Non-Discretionary terms, so the royalty fees would have to be reasonable for JEDEC to agree on making CAMM a standard. The main benefit of Dell's CAMM is that the memory traces end up being shorter and more direct, since the CAMM has a single-sided interface, whereas SO-DIMMs are interfaced on both sides, just like standard DIMMs. This would allow for higher speed memory interfaces, without the need of using something like signal re-drivers or re-timers.
Dell is apparently planning on getting its CAMM approved by the JEDEC, which is the standards organisation when it comes to memory. However, even if the CAMM format is accepted as a JEDEC standard, Dell holds patents and is likely to charge some kind of royalty fees to interested parties. That said, if it becomes a JEDEC standard, Dell has to follow RAND or Reasonable and Non-Discretionary terms, so the royalty fees would have to be reasonable for JEDEC to agree on making CAMM a standard. The main benefit of Dell's CAMM is that the memory traces end up being shorter and more direct, since the CAMM has a single-sided interface, whereas SO-DIMMs are interfaced on both sides, just like standard DIMMs. This would allow for higher speed memory interfaces, without the need of using something like signal re-drivers or re-timers.