Chips Out Loud
Hello and welcome to Chips Out Loud. In each episode we'll discuss emerging technologies in the Memory and Storage space. We’ll also focus on the customer needs that shape evolving modern client devices as well as next generation data centers.
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Atlas AI, Part II
11/29/2022
Atlas AI, Part II
Guests Abe Tarapani, CEO, and Marshall Burke, Co-Founder of Atlas AI rejoin the podcast for a continuing conversation about the symbiosis between the companies as an investment of Micron Ventures. Jim Greene explores the impact of the CHIPS Act on infrastructure in the US and how Atlas AI plays a role for companies like Micron in that effort. ”Think about just the visionary nature of these investments, and how substantial they have the opportunity to be,” Abe imagines, “There is an opportunity for companies … to proactively think about how to direct the investment in a way that drives growth in the most sustainable way in these areas, to identify potential areas, to build capacity, whether that be human capacity or infrastructure capacity proactively, to mitigate unintended consequences of these investments, and to do it in a way that's entirely seamless with the core manufacturing investment and growth plans of the business.” Jim investigates further about the awareness of impact when planning projects at a global scale and the lessons learned by AtlasAI from previous deployments in Africa. Check out the new technology at and learn more about Atlas AI at . Check out the recent publication in Nature: Using machine learning to assess the livelihood impact of electricity access at .
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Atlas AI, Part I
11/22/2022
Atlas AI, Part I
The Chips Out Loud podcast greets new guests Abe Tarapani, CEO, and Marshall Burke, Co-Founder of Atlas AI. Jim Greene discusses the mission alignment between the companies, with Atlas AI as an investment of Micron Ventures. ”I was wandering around in Sub-Saharan Africa, working with a number of organizations, both big and small, trying to understand how they could improve livelihood outcomes among lower income populations in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Marshall begins, “it was really rich data, but it was fundamentally just not very scalable and it got very frustrating for me in that we could only talk to a few households per day and after a few months, I would have a couple 100 households if I was lucky. And it just didn't feel like a scalable way to learn about the world.” Jim investigates further about the evolution of Atlas AI, the customers who utilize geospatial analytics, and the use cases across non-profits, infrastructure, education and healthcare. Check out the new technology at and learn more about Atlas AI at . Check out the recent publication in Nature: Using machine learning to assess the livelihood impact of electricity access at .
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Trends in High Performance Computing
11/15/2022
Trends in High Performance Computing
As the supercomputing conference SC22 takes place in Dallas, Texas, Steve Pawlowski, Corporate Vice President Advanced Memory Systems, joins host Jim Greene on the newest edition of the Chips Out Loud podcast to discuss topics and trends in High Performance Computing. ”If you really try to break out the cost of the different compute structures versus the cost of moving data in order to be able to do a single floating point operation, you spend about 100 times more energy doing the data movement than you do actually doing compute, “ Steve confides, “And so the idea was, okay, instead of moving data to where the compute is, we're getting massive amounts of data and we keep the data resident and do what we can to move the computing closer and closer to the data to improve the bandwidth so that we can improve the performance of these systems and to lower the energy so that we can improve the energy efficiency as well.” Jim and Steve continue to discuss current challenges for high performance computing centers, Micron’s new technology offerings in the arena, and a future-looking assessment of the evolution of HPC. Check out the new technology at .
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Micron DDR5 for the Data Center
11/10/2022
Micron DDR5 for the Data Center
Malcolm Humphrey joins host Jim Greene on the latest installment of the Chips Out Loud podcast. Malcolm serves as the Vice President and General Manager of the Compute DRAM at Micron. Today the excitement surrounds the impact of the new generation DDR5 memory for data center customers. “DDR5 refers to Double Data Rate Generation 5 Dynamic Random-Access Memory, which is a mouthful,” Malcolm confides, “ I just call it D5 for short. But really what it is, it's the newest generation of high-speed memory standard, optimized for compute applications, and in particular, the data center.” Jim investigates further into the system’s origins, as well as its components and development cycle. Malcolm shares examples of the promise the technology holds for data center and cloud workloads. They conclude with a look at the future of state-of-the-art memory offerings at Micron. Check out the new technology at and learn more about Micron at .
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1-beta DRAM leadership
11/01/2022
1-beta DRAM leadership
On the heels of the news that Micron has begun shipping QS-sampling LPDDR5X components developed on the new 1-beta process node to its smartphone customers, host Jim Greene welcomes Thy Tran, Vice President DRAM Process Integration, to the Chips Out Loud Podcast to discuss the emergent technology. “One beta technology is our next generation of DRAM … which enables further shrink of our memory array cell size, as well as the rest of the circuitry in the die,” Thy reveals. “Besides over 35% memory bit density gain, our customers can expect approximately 15% in power savings and continuous node-to-node performance improvement.” Ty further expounds on the innovations enabled by 1-beta and the effort by the DRAM team at Micron that’s behind the new offering. Jim queries Thy on the leading-edge process technology involved and the partnerships that make DRAM node advancement possible now and in the future. Check out the new technologies at and learn more about Micron at .
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Driving What's Next in Mobile
08/02/2022
Driving What's Next in Mobile
Ross Dermott, Vice President, Mobile Product Line Management, Mobile Business Unit at Micron Technology joins Chips Out Loud host Jim Greene to talk about the new mNAND solutions for top-of-line smartphones, its intelligent vertical integration, and the roadmap for future-proofing the mobile experience. “The NAND-based products that we're building for mobile are a category called Managed NAND,” Dermott explains. “Managed NAND combines NAND technology with a controller and firmware. And that controller and firmware are really what help optimize the performance of that NAND device.” Host Jim Greene delves deeper with Ross on the micro and macro trends driving the market including short form video, mobile gaming, workflow and metavers, and how his team constantly analyzes the user experience to ensure Micron’s Memory and Storage solutions can further enhance the mobile experience for years to come. Check out the new technologies at and learn more about Micron at .
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Micron’s Journey to 232L Tech
07/26/2022
Micron’s Journey to 232L Tech
In this episode, Russ Meyer, Corporate Vice President Non-Volatile Memory, drops by to talk about the announcement of 232-layer memory in Micron’s new 3D NAND offering. “I think everybody's aware of the torrential pace of NAND scaling over the last decades and this 232-layer technology is the next progression to enable that scaling,” Meyer states. “That scaling, as we all know, has been a foundation for the revolution that we're all living through, the way we interact with the data..” Host Jim Greene queries Russ on a bevy of topics: Why do layers matter and what makes stacking them difficult from a design perspective, the importance of suppliers in the mix, and the global view of NAND development. Check out the new technologies at and learn more about Micron at .
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Addressing Automotive Requirements
06/21/2022
Addressing Automotive Requirements
Guests Robert Bielby and Marco Montagnana sit with Chips Out Loud host Jim Greene to talk about learnings from Micron Technology’s foray into the automotive sector, with its standards-based technologies and stringent safety requirements. Robert serves as Senior Director, Automotive System Architecture. Marco operates as Senior Manager, FUSA & Cybersecurity Office. “I think we're at a point where we have sufficient compute performance to really be able to address self-driving vehicles,” Robert Bielby explains. “The problem is a little bit more difficult than people had expected or anticipated, but when you throw a computer at the problem, you've got 360 degrees visibility. They can see farther than we can; they don't get fatigued. So it's inevitable that computers are going to take over driving.” “Functional safety started with the classical automotive mechanical kind of application like powertrain, chassis and where even our kind of devices were not so important,” Marco Montagnana expounds “The quantity of memory devices were not huge. Now with a new era, with the EDAS, the autonomous drive application, the quantity of memory is becoming more and more important.” Host Jim Greene further queries his guests on the market landscape, its unique requirements, and the relationship between Automotive Hardware Functional Safety (FuSa) and IoT applications, as well as the industry changing attitude toward DRAM technology. Visit to learn more. Check out for additional company information. Follow and on LinkedIn.
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CXL in the Data Center
06/07/2022
CXL in the Data Center
This week’s episode of Chips Out Loud features guests Ryan Baxter and Eric Caward discussing the topic of Compute Express Link. Ryan works at Micron as Senior Manager, Data Center Segment while Eric resides as Senior Manager, Emerging Technology. CXL is the premiere open standard for high-speed CPU connection to device and memory in high performance data centers. “It's really the first interface of its kind in servers,” Baxter explains. “It's really an interface built for efficient memory accesses. The protocol itself is byte addressable. It's low latency. It's high bandwidth. And for all those nerds out there, it's cache-coherent.” “If you think about the broad industry support, it's really going to drive inertia that builds innovation and will accelerate in the data center, which will be very exciting,” Eric Caward concurs. “This is not just for folks that want to innovate on the interface. This would be enterprise OEMs. This would be cloud service providers and everyone in between.” Host Jim Greene further explores the advancement of Data Center architecture with his guests, and the customer use cases that might most benefit from the introduction of CXL. Is CXL a memory story, an accelerator story, or both? Baxter and Caward opine on additional advancements the future holds. To find out more about CXL, revisit Ryan Baxter’s from VMworld 2021 in which he called the technology, “a re-imagined memory and storage hierarchy, and an open, agnostic interconnect,” or see this 2022 from Micron’s Bryan Madden which also discusses CXL technology and features a fireside chat with previous Chips Out Loud guest Jeremy Werner discussing its effect on the evolution of the data center [26:34].
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Authenta and Security at the Edge
06/01/2022
Authenta and Security at the Edge
On today’s episode of Chips Out Loud, guest Chris Jacobs shares his thoughts on Micron® Authenta™ technology, a unique level of cyber protection for IoT devices. Chris works as Vice President, Marketing Embedded Unit at Micron Technology. “Authenta is a set of features added to a flash storage device,” Jacobs reveals. “These features add security layers by protecting data, maintaining its integrity and providing recovery mechanisms for damaged data. From a bigger picture point of view, Authenta is a combination of flash-based technology and Authenta cloud platform that serves as a trusted authority and software tools that greatly simplify its adoption. All of these elements together allow for a rapid and minimally disruptive way to build and manufacture trusted IOT systems that meet today's cybersecurity needs for deployment of cloud services.” Host Jim Greene further queries Jacobs on the pain point that Authenta addresses. They discuss the concept of a “security tax” penalty and how it commonly causes slow adoption of root of trust for protection and privacy by device manufacturers. IoT systems naturally operate with cloud connectivity, and so both cloud service providers and OEM’s benefit from the type of cybersecurity protection Authenta offers. To learn more visit and be sure to for upcoming Authenta tech talk sessions. Check out to learn more about the company. Follow Chris Jacobs on LinkedIn at
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The Mobile Data Opportunity
04/05/2022
The Mobile Data Opportunity
Chips Out Loud returns for a fifth episode with featured guest Chris Moore, VP Marketing of Mobile Business Unit Marketing at Micron Technology. Moore discusses the opportunity offered by the expansive evolution of the smartphone over the last twenty years into once unimaginable territory. “The hardware makes it simpler to carry one device around, but the software, now you've got email on your device all the time,” Moore informs. “You've got a calendar that'll tell you what's going on. You've got a digital assistant to tell you where you need to be in an hour. The digital assistant is integrated with your GPS, that's going to tell you which route to go. I mean, it's amazing when you look back over 20 years, all the things that have changed in your life with this smartphone.” Host Jim Greene and Moore further discuss advancements in memory and storage technology from NOR to UFS 4.0. On the memory side, the recent release of LPDDR5X marks the modern standard. They consider advancements in foldable displays and the gains that larger mobile screens represent in gaming, video playback and content creation. To learn more visit and follow Micron Technology on LinkedIn at
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Data Center QoS and 7450
03/15/2022
Data Center QoS and 7450
Episode 4 of Chips Out Loud brings guest Alvaro Toledo to the program. Alvaro, VP and General Manager, Data Center Storage at Micron Technology, highlights recent customer feedback for predictable latency requirements for series host Jim Greene. “One of my favorite parts of the job is talking to customers, understanding their pain points, and really focusing with them on opportunities where we can innovate together,” says Alvaro. “This will probably come to you as no surprise, but hyperscalers and cloud customers are continuing to drive optimizations in their data centers to maintain this tremendously fast pace of innovation.“ Alvaro and Jim discuss the cutting-edge innovation behind the 7450 SSD and the value found from a variety of capacity points and form factors. They continue by examining how the 7450’s differentiating latency at 6x9 QoS improves performance for various types of workloads and data center environments. To learn more visit and follow Micron Technology on LinkedIn at
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Micron Ventures Team Turns to AI
02/09/2022
Micron Ventures Team Turns to AI
The Chips Out Loud podcast series returns with guest Gayathri Radhakrishnan, Senior Director Capital - AI Fund. Host Jim Greene interviews G, who is from the Micron Ventures team and was recognized in 2021 as one of the top 50 rising stars in global corporate venturing, about changing trends in venture capital and the broader market place. “Micron's mission is transforming how the world uses innovation to enrich life for all,” Radhakrishnan confides, “And at Micron Ventures, we are basically focused on applied AI and also startups that are enabling the adoption of AI and machine learning … it's about taking data in the ecosystem that’s in our various use cases, and how can we make the process better? How can we make prediction better?” Jim and G further explore the qualities the Micron Ventures Team look for in startups and go on to highlight some companies from the portfolio that hold great promise. To learn more visit and follow G at
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176-Layer NAND and 2400 Client SSDs
02/07/2022
176-Layer NAND and 2400 Client SSDs
Jim Greene hosts the Chips Out Loud podcast series with guest Praveen Vaidyanathan, VP & GM, Client Storage at Micron Technology on the topic of 176-Layer NAND technology and announcement of 2400 Client SSDs. Vaidyanathan queries, “How do we make things smaller? Smaller and continue to scale things down. … How do we get more storage in a given amount of space so that translates to higher capacity SSDs. And at the same time, how do we get faster products? How do we get a better user experience as we scale technologies and develop new products?[01:36]”. He continues, “So these are the three areas that Micron has been very focused on and delivering to generation over generation.” Jim and Praveen further discuss the challenges behind NAND and Storage in general. They overview the different technologies and tradeoffs in the industry and look at who are the users drawn to QLC NAND SSD and the motivation behind the innovation in 2400 SSDs. To learn more visit and follow Praveen at
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The Future of SSDs and the Data Center
02/02/2022
The Future of SSDs and the Data Center
Welcome to the debut episode of the Chips Out Loud podcast series. Your host Jim Greene connects with Jeremy Werner, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Storage Business Unit at Micron on the topic of SSDs and the modern Data Center. Werner on trends in the Storage industry: “One thing that I think humans crave is the richness of experience. As we spend more time in digital environments, and maybe in the future, it is this much-discussed metaverse … in order to deliver increasing richness of human experience, we need more storage. We need more memory." The conversation continues with discussion of the OCP Summit, the future of HDD, and the latest offering from Jeremy’s team, the Micron 7400 SSD with NVMe. To learn more visit and follow Jeremy at .
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