OPEN COMPUTE SUMMIT -– Intel Corporation announced a collaboration with
Facebook* to define the next generation of rack technologies used to
power the world’s largest data centers. As part of the collaboration,
the companies also unveiled a mechanical prototype built by Quanta
Computer* that includes Intel’s new, innovative photonic rack
architecture to show the total cost, design and reliability improvement
potential of a disaggregated rack environment.
“Intel and Facebook are collaborating on a new disaggregated, rack-scale
server architecture that enables independent upgrading of compute,
network and storage subsystems that will define the future of
mega-datacenter designs for the next decade,” said Justin Rattner,
Intel’s chief technology officer during his keynote address at Open
Computer Summit in Santa Clara, Calif. “The disaggregated rack
architecture includes Intel’s new photonic architecture, based on
high-bandwidth, 100Gbps Intel® Silicon Photonics Technology, that
enables fewer cables, increased bandwidth, farther reach and extreme
power efficiency compared to today’s copper based interconnects.”
Rattner explained that the new architecture is based on more than a
decade’s worth of research to invent a family of silicon-based photonic
devices, including lasers, modulators and detectors using low-cost
silicon to fully integrate photonic devices of unprecedented speed and
energy efficiency. Silicon
photonics is a new approach to using light (photons) to move huge
amounts of data at very high speeds with extremely low power over a thin
optical fiber rather than using electrical signals over a copper cable.
Intel has spent the past two years proving its silicon photonics
technology was production-worthy, and has now produced engineering
samples.
Silicon photonics made with inexpensive silicon rather than expensive
and exotic optical materials provides a distinct cost advantage over
older optical technologies in addition to providing greater speed,
reliability and scalability benefits. Businesses with server farms or
massive data centers could eliminate performance bottlenecks and ensure
long-term upgradability while saving significant operational costs in
space and energy.
Silicon Photonics and Disaggregation Efficiencies
Businesses with large data centers can significantly reduce capital
expenditure by disaggregating or separating compute and storage
resources in a server rack. Rack disaggregation refers to the separation
of those resources that currently exist in a rack, including compute,
storage, networking and power distribution into discrete modules.
Traditionally, a server within a rack would each have its own group of
resources. When disaggregated, resource types can be grouped together
and distributed throughout the rack, improving upgradability,
flexibility and reliability while lowering costs.
“We’re excited about the flexibility that these technologies can bring
to hardware and how silicon photonics will enable us to interconnect
these resources with less concern about their physical placement,” said
Frank Frankovsky, chairman of the Open Compute Foundation and vice
president of hardware design at supply chain at Facebook. “We’re
confident that developing these technologies in the open and
contributing them back to the Open Compute Project will yield an
unprecedented pace of innovation, ultimately enabling the entire
industry to close the utilization gap that exists with today’s systems
designs.”
By separating critical components from one another, each computer
resource can be upgraded on its own cadence without being coupled to the
others. This provides increased lifespan for each resource and enables
IT managers to replace just that resource instead of the entire system.
This increased serviceability and flexibility drives improved total-cost
for infrastructure investments as well as higher levels of
resiliency. There are also thermal efficiency opportunities by allowing
more optimal component placement within a rack.
The mechanical prototype is a demonstration of Intel’s photonic rack
architecture for interconnecting the various resources, showing one of
the ways compute, network and storage resources can be disaggregated
within a rack. Intel will contribute a design for enabling a photonic
receptacle to the Open Compute Project (OCP) and will work with
Facebook*, Corning*, and others over time to standardize the design. The
mechanical prototype includes distributed input/output (I/O) using Intel
Ethernet switch silicon, and will support the Intel® Xeon® processor and
the next generation, 22 nanometer system-on-chip (SoC) Intel® Atom™
processor, code named “Avoton,” available this year.
The mechanical prototype shown today is the next evolution of rack
disaggregation with separate distributed switching functions.
Intel and Facebook: A History of Collaboration and Contributions
Intel and Facebook have long been technology collaboration partners on
hardware and software optimizations to drive more efficiency and scale
for Facebook data centers. Intel is also a founding board member of the
OCP, along with Facebook. Intel has several OCP engagements in flight
including working with the industry to design OCP boards for Intel Xeon
and Intel Atom based processors, support for cold storage with the Intel
Atom processor, and common hardware management as well as future rack
definitions including enabling today’s photonics receptacle.
About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The
company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the
foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information
about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com
and blogs.intel.com.
Intel, the Intel logo Xeon, Intel Atom and Intel Core are trademarks of
Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.
* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
