First PCIe/CXL over Photonics with Cloud Software Platform
The Future of Your Data Center is Photonic, but the Journey Might Start with a Curated Managed Cloud Software Service
Our Approach
Mission Statement: Organizing the World’s Data Center Resources Around a Photonic Fabric
Software Only Strategy: Users can start the journey to a modern data center using Drut’s Software Platform (DSP) for new and existing data center equipment. We used our knowledge gained from building the Drut platform and applied some of the same concepts to our software practices. The key concept carried through all our product offerings, is to always maintain fluid resources at multiple layers, not just at the hardware layer, all the way up the software stack.
You need to have a system that you can redeploy with confidence, what we see with customers is that once they get their systems deployed, with the difficulty and effort required, they tend to avoid touching it again, meaning the next app needs new infrastructure. We want to make repurposing and rebuilding infrastructure easy.
Platform Strategy: At Drut we believe that the next wave of modern data centers requires real hardware innovation which is our PCIe over Photonics (PoP) disaggregated architecture, but this is only made possible with an innovative approach to cloud software services. Rather than trying to abstract the hardware layer away with some virtualization software layer, we want to disaggregate both hardware and software in order to close the loop between hardware composition and the software application layer provisioning. Our platform strategy provides:
- Resource disaggregation using a ultra-low latency photonic fabric
- Designed for modern cloud workloads, AI and HPC workloads without a specialized network
- Designed for a single rack to cluster size deployments, across rows and pods
- GPU virtualization and GPU cluster fabric
Drut Platform Advantages
What is Needed: A better method for organizing valuable data center resources around workloads through a software defined hardware hypervisor
How will it be done? By crossing the final barrier from electrons to photons – architecture matters!
How does the Drut Platform provide value?
1. Latency – Direct connect, all photonic fabric provides the lowest possible latency allowing valuable machine resources to be directly connected into a composable node
2. Distance – Photonics eliminates the distance and physical locality challenges in the data center
3. Complexity – Removing stacked hierarchies of switches, protocols and overlays is the most direct method to remove complexity
4. Efficiency – Grouping resources via direct connect around workload requirements resolves the stranded resource challenge
5. Security – Like a SAN, workloads do not transgress over racks, spines and cores, they are isolated
6. OPEX – Using data center resources more efficiently, means getting more from less, such as less power, less cooling, less space
7.CAPEX – Reducing data center waste and decoupling resource upgrade cycles from the server upgrade cycle means capital can be spent with greater fidelity on what matters most
Our Innovations
Drut Software Platform (DSP): On-prem software platform that provides cloud like automation for end-users. Can be deployed as first step before evolving to PCIe over Photonics (PoP). Designed to provide cloud like IaaS for compute and storage in your data center or colo.
Drut Fabric Manager (DFM): Software defined bare metal resource manager. Connects software stacks from the DSP to resource pools of CPU, GPU, Storage, DPU, FPGA, etc. Programs the Drut fabric via the photonic switch (PXC).
Drut Fabric Interface Card (FIC) 1000: First PCIe/Photonic Integration with software based datapath transport for PCIe/CXL.
Drut Direct Connect Photonic Fabric (PXC): Large radix programmable photonic fabric that provides agility and a low latency interconnect.
Drut Photonic Resource Unit (PRU): Disaggregation chassis that connects resources (e.g.,GPU, Storage, IPUs, FPGAs, TPUs) to photonic fabric
The Architecture
Software Defined Infrastructure Enabled by PCIe/CXL over Photonics
This approach addresses three challenges: (i) stranded resources, (ii) latency and (iii) distance. It has many other tangential benefits on OPEX, CAPEX, power efficiencies, security, but the adoption will occur because a photonic fabric at scale is the next evolution of the modern data center and for the first time in thirty years the technologies required to make the transition from electrons to photons are available.
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