Ethernet-based interconnect, the critical crossroads for HPC & AI networking at scale

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The convergence of HPC and AI entails an explosion of performance of the number of nodes/cores, data volume, and data movement. In the coming years, the deployment of AI networks, ranging from rack-scale to datacenter-scale, is set to accelerate, necessitating the evolution of networking technology to effectively support and accommodate these needs.

Date: Wednesday, November 15 
Time: 10:30 am - 12:00 pm MT 
Venue: Room 503-504, Colorado Convention Center 

Eric Eppe

Group VP, HPC, AI, Quantum Portfolio & Strategy 

The existing HPC & AI networking choices have their virtues to continuously support the simulation evolution. However, depending on the specific requirements, e.g. workload characteristics, performance considerations, and budget constraints, customers should have the flexibility and choices to an open, interoperable, high performance, full-communications stack architecture to meet the growing network demands at scale, whether on-premises or in the cloud.

As one of the founding members of the UEC (Ultra Ethernet Consortium), Eviden supports an Ethernet-based, multivendor interoperable, scalable, and cost-effective high-performance networking for HPC and AI workload, focusing on:​

• Performance and reliability: Extremely low latency for efficient communication between nodes for both HPC and AI workloads, supporting massive data transfer or high-throughput inter-node communication. Effectively manage packet processing, network congestion, and message handling protocols, enabling low-latency and substantial data transfers with RDMA over Ethernet, ensuring data integrity.

• Interoperability and Simplicity: Leveraging the ubiquity, mature ecosystem, vendor support, and interoperability with various software and toolsets, Ethernet-based next-gen networking fabric offers seamless integration with popular operating systems, cluster management software, storage solutions, and distributed file systems commonly used in data centers.

• Scalability and cost-effectiveness: The affordability of Ethernet hardware, software and the widespread adoption in commercial networks makes it a cost-effective and easy-to-scale networking choices.