Ultra Ethernet promises to tune Ethernet for the needs of specialized workloads, including HPC and AI, from the lowest hardware to the software stack. This episode of Utilizing Tech features Dr. J Metz, Steering Committee Chair of the Ultra Ethernet Consortium, discussing this new technology with Frederic Van Haren and Stephen Foskett. The process of tuning Ethernet begins with a study of the profile and workloads to be served to identify the characteristics needed to support it. The group focuses on scale-out networks for large-scale applications like AI and HPC. Considerations include security, latency, ordering, and scalability. The goal is not to replace PCIe, CXL, or fabrics like NVLink but to extend Ethernet to address the connectivity and performance needs in an open standardized way. But Ultra Ethernet is more than hardware; the group is also building software features including a Libfabric interface and are working with OCP, DMTF, SNIA, and other industry groups.
Podcast Information:
Stephen Foskett, Organizer of the Tech Field Day Event Series, part of The Futurum Group. Find Stephen’s writing at GestaltIT.com, on Twitter at @SFoskett, or on Mastodon at @[email protected].
Allyson Klein, Global Marketing and Communications Leader and Founder of The Tech Arena. You can connect with @TechAllyson on Twitter or LinkedIn. Find out more information on The Tech Arena website.
J Metz is the Chair of both the Ultra Ethernet Consortium and SNIA, as well as a Technical Director at AMD. You can connect with J on LinkedIn or on X/Twitter. Learn more about The Ultra Ethernet Consortium on their website. Learn more about SNIA on their website. Learn more about AMD’s AI efforts here.
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