gaming

Meta adds DDR4 to DDR5 servers using custom Vistara chip

Meta repurposed older DDR4 modules alongside DDR5 by using a custom Vistara chip and CXL to bridge the two memory generations. The system treats DDR4 as a slower, separate ‘cold’ memory pool while DDR5 stays as low-latency ‘hot’ memory. Meta describes the setup as MemServers in a company research paper and uses it to mitigate tight DDR5 supply.

• Vistara chip translates DDR5 protocol to DDR4 over CXL
• DDR4 acts as slower cold storage; DDR5 remains hot memory
• MemServer node spec cited: 158-core Epyc, 768 GB DDR5, 256 GB DDR4
• Approach reuses existing DDR4 to ease global DDR5 shortage