OCP Summit: Microsemi showcase Switchtec PAX PCIe advanced fabric switch

As the use of graphics processing units (GPUs) for deep learning, artificial intelligence and machine learning make groundbreaking improvements in areas of image classification, speech recognition, autonomous driving, bioinformatics and video analytics, the need for efficient parallel GPU computing continues to grow.

According to market research firm IndustryARC, the GPU machine learning market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 38% till 2024.

The firm also notes advanced technologies such as low power consumption, high throughput and flexibility will drastically increase the adoption of machine learning applications across the globe.



Now, Microsemi Corporation announces enhancements to its Switchtec PCIe advanced Fabric Switch (PAX), which now provides high-performance fabric connectivity and composability for multi-host graphics processing unit (GPU) and NVMe solid state drive (SSD) systems.

Microsemi will be showcasing a demonstration of the new device during the Open Compute Project (OCP) Summit March 20-21, 2018 in San Jose, California.

Switchtec PCIe advanced fabric switches provide a scalable, low-latency and cost-effective multi-host interconnect for a network of GPUs, NVMe SSDs and other PCIe endpoints.

The Switchtec PAX product can be used to create a flexible fabric interconnect to a shared pool of GPUs and/or NVMe SSDs using standard operating system drivers. System management is simplified through a fabric application programming interface (API), significantly reducing time to market and development cost for multi-host systems.

“Our Switchtec PAX switch enables GPU resources to be allocated to match workload requirements and maximise efficiency,” said Andrew Dieckmann, vice president of marketing for data centre solutions at Microsemi. “Using the dynamic partitioning and multi-host SR-IOV sharing features available on our Switchtec PAX switches, GPU resources can be ‘composed’ or dynamically allocated to a specific host or set of hosts in real-time using standard host drivers.”

Microsemi‘s Switchtec PAX family comprises switches from 96 lanes to 24 lanes, providing:

* High-performance PCIe fabric connectivity overcoming the limitations of the PCIe Specification for multi-host systems
* Multi-host sharing of SR-IOV NVMe SSDs, GPUs and other PCIe endpoints
* Virtualisation of host PCIe domains and SR-IOV endpoints
* Software development kit (SDK) for virtualization of SR-IOV endpoints, and for enclosure management
* One of the industry’s most flexible port bifurcation, from x2 to x16 lanes per port
* High port density, with up to 48 ports
* Advanced error reporting
* Error containment for surprise-plug and unplug to prevent system crashes
* Advanced diagnostics and debug features to identify, diagnose and fix problems
* Separate Refclk Independent SSC (SRIS) for cabled PCIe and lower cost system designs.