Every year I try to do a write up on the content I’m most excited about for OCP’s Global Summit. Full disclosure: I’m a former Board Member and Chairperson, still involved in the Future Technologies Initiative/Symposium, and I was one of the content advisors on the Artificial Intelligence track this year, so I definitely am biased.
The full schedule for OCP Global Summit is jam packed with sessions covering Security, Reliability, Artificial Intelligence, Open Networking, Sustainability, Composable Memory, Chiplets, Optics, Coherent Interconnects, Automation, Facilities Innovation, Cooling, and a lot more. This three day industry event literally brings thousands of people, and hundreds of companies together to discuss the future of our industry, and how we need to collaborate to drive the changes that any one company alone cannot facilitate.
So first thing on Tuesday, we have Keynotes. There is an overwhelming theme across the keynotes: how Artificial Intelligence is changing the computing landscape exacerbating challenges with power, cooling, and networking, and creating new threats for security. If you want to hear from a broad range of hyperscalers and leading semiconductor companies on how they are preparing for this explosion of generative AI, you should not miss it.
Unlike many other conferences, the Keynotes are not the sole reason to attend. This conference is full of breakout sessions led by the engineers who are actually building systems, solutions, silicon, and software to solve novel challenges. On Tuesday afternoon I will be torn between the AI track and the SONiC track, but since I was on the content advisory committee for the AI track, I will definitely be there to see it live. There is everything from processor-in-memory inferencing solutions to open source efforts to align upon a hardware abstraction layer in order to unlock AI accelerator innovation while continuing to enable model development rapidly and consistently. Google, nVidia, Meta, Microsoft, and many more will be presenting on use cases, challenges, and opportunities across the Data Center from silicon to software, and facilities to network observability.
On Wednesday, Andy Bechtolsheim is kicking it off with network architecture and optics for large scale AI clusters. Then we will transition to the Future Technologies Symposium, which is one of my favorite sections of the conference because it isn’t just about the challenges of today, it is about the challenges facing us as an industry from researchers to start ups and well-established companies. Several critical projects for storage disaggregation, the evolution of the Network Operating System, from the Linux Foundation, the journey to composable memory, how we have to continue to evolve hardware management solutions in an increasingly complex system, and much more. DENT will have its first sessions at OCP this year along with SONiC, highlighting the breadth and depth of open source NOS solutions available, and how we will continue to evolve to optimize for usability. Optics, open edge servers, efforts on a RAS (reliability, availability, and serviceability) standard API, RAS to contain the impact of PCIe uncorrected errors, RAS and enhancements in MCTP, SPDM, PLDM, OpenBMC, and Redfish support for GPUs and accelerators (a critical workstream we need significant standardization upon), and memory fault management also will be providing updates on Wednesday. Last but in no way least, we will hear a lot about improvements in the sustainability and usability of immersive solutions, and circularity initiatives from Open System Firmware to eWaste reclamation improvements.
On Wednesday afternoon, we will go even further down the future-looking data center “rabbit hole”, discussing Quantum Computing, advancements in composable memory including much needed real-time telemetry, Silent Data Corruption research progress, automation and robotics in the data center, and hacking away at AI opportunities (predictive analytics, resource optimization using AI for sustainable operations, and localization) within the data center domain. My team will also be presenting our DC-SCM 2.0 compliant solution for hardware management designed in conjunction with Lenovo, and I definitely won’t miss that!
Thursday ushers in security, chiplets, time synchronization, more on modularity, and networking (beyond Optics and Open Networking well covered in the first two days). Updates on Caliptra, DC-MHS progress, SONiC, QUIC offload on the Linux kernel, and significantly more user updates in the domains of sustainability, storage, and facilities enhancements.
OCP Global Summit is designed for teams, where each can divide and conquer to expand insight across security, manageability, reliability, modularity, networking, thermal/mechanical design, and future-looking initiatives such as chiplets and composable memory. The opportunity to learn, connect, and share is how OCP continues to empower open communities, and I look forward to seeing you there!