Friday
Dec242021
Data centre disaggregation with Gen-Z and CXL
Friday, December 24, 2021 at 1:50PM
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.
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).