Observations at the Linley Data Center Seminar
I attended Linley Group’s data center seminar this Tuesday to learn more about the latest data center trends. Xelerated’s Anders Wirkestrand presented on the Network Processor Unit’s (NPU) role in data centers as a key catalyst for virtualization.
One key observation is that an NPU has an enormous amount of service density and could, when used together with a multicore processor, increase the overall performance and transaction rate while lowering the power significantly. The number of instructions per packet is 23 times (yes, you read that correctly!) over a state-of-the-art Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 multicore processor. Combining the strength of a state-of-the-art multicore processor and an Xelerated NPU can dramatically improve the overall solution.
It is interesting to see that the data center server players are adding switching functionality, and at the same time, the router and switch vendors are adding server functionality. They end up competing with each other. When the switch becomes a server, and the server becomes a switch, it opens up for a period of strong innovations. Which architecture model will prevail in the future?
| Comment
