After years of being offered as separate technologies, storage and memory are beginning to merge. It’s already happening, for example, with 3D Xpoint, a technology from Intel and Micron that can serve as memory, storage, or both.

Now, a new consortium, called Gen-Z, is out to ease the transition to this new class of storage and memory in computers. It’s creating a new specification and architecture that will make it easier to add new forms of non-volatile memory to computers.

Gen-Z will have a new connector, fabric and data transfer protocol. One goal is to create an open standard so new forms of memory can communicate with processors and accelerators in a coherent manner. Gen-Z will also work with SSDs like QuantX from Micron.

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