Data centre disaggregation with Gen-Z and CXL

Part 1: CXL and Gen-Z

• The Gen-Z and Compute Express Link (CXL) protocols have been shown working in unison to implement a disaggregated processor and memory system at the recent Supercomputing 21 show.

• The Gen-Z Consortium’s assets are being subsumed within the CXL Consortium. CXL will become the sole industry standard moving forward.

• Microsoft and Meta are two data centre operators backing CXL.

Pity Hiren Patel, tasked with explaining the Gen-Z and CXL networking demonstration operating across several booths at the Supercomputing 21 (SC21) show held in St. Louis, Missouri in November.

Hiren Patel

Not only was Patel wearing a sanitary mask while describing the demo but he had to battle to be heard above cooling fans so loud, you could still be at St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

Gen-Z and CXL are key protocols supporting memory and server disaggregation in the data centre.

The SC21 demo showed Gen-Z and CXL linking compute nodes to remote ‘media boxes’ filled with memory in a distributed multi-node network (see diagram, bottom).

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PMC unveils OTN framer for IP core and edge routers

PMC-Sierra’s latest Optical Transport Network (OTN) framer chip for IP core and edge routers doubles throughput to 240 gigabit.

The Meta-240G frames IP router traffic using OTN before passing the traffic to the transport network. Line-rate encryption is included on-chip to secure traffic between data centres and traffic in the cloud.

Source: PMC-Sierra

Adding OTN to a router delivers several benefits, says PMC. OTN helps identify networking faults more quickly and simplifies the monitoring and enforcement of service-level agreements. OTN also includes forward-error correction which benefits optical link performance. 

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