Gen-Z (consortium)
 | |
| Year created | 2016 |
|---|---|
| Created by | Gen-Z Consortium |
TheGen-ZConsortium is a trade group of technology vendors involved in designingCPUs,random access memory,servers, storage, and accelerators. The goal was to design an open and royalty-free "memory-semantic" bus protocol, which is not limited by the memory controller of a CPU, to be used in either aswitched fabricor a point-to-point device link on a standard connector.[1]
In November 2021, the GenZ Consortium voted to transfer all its specifications and intellectual property to theCXLConsortium.[2]
History[edit]
The consortium was publicly announced on October 11, 2016.[3][4]
Members include server vendorsCisco Systems,Cray,Dell Technologies,Hewlett Packard Enterprise,Huawei,IBM,andLenovo.CPU vendor members includeAdvanced Micro Devices,ARM Holdings,Broadcom Limited,IBM, andMarvell. Memory and storage vendor members includeMicron Technology,Samsung,Seagate Technology,SK Hynix,andWestern Digital.Other members includeIDT Corporation,IntelliProp,[5]Mellanox Technologies,Microsemi,Red Hat,andXilinx.Analysts noted the absence ofIntel,which announced an inter-connect technology of its own calledOmni-Patha year before, andNvidia,with its ownNVLinktechnology.[4][1]Gen-Z also maintains cooperation with industry alliances such asOpenFabrics,[6]SNIA,andDMTF.
The effort followed years of delays with product availability for version 4.0 ofPCI Express.[7][8]Some of the vendors also joined a group to promote the cache coherent interconnect for accelerators (CCIX) protocol on the same day.[9]At about the same time, yet another consortium formed to work on an open specification for theCoherent Accelerator Processor Interface(CAPI).[10]
The first version of the GenZ Core specifications was published in 2018; it defined a physical link with bothPCI Expressand50 Gigabit Ethernetphysical layer (PHY) standards. The Gen-Z protocol allows for asymmetric links with more bandwidth in one direction, and supports connection topologies like point to point links, daisy-chaining, and switched fabrics.[8]The basic operations consist of simple loads and stores with the addition of modular extensions.
Collaboration with CXL[edit]
On April 2, 2020, theCompute Express Link(CXL) and Gen-Z Consortiums announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU), describing collaboration between the two groups.[11][12]By October 2020, some technologies were demonstrated at the super computing conference, but no products were announced.[13]
In November 2021 the CXL Consortium and the GenZ Consortium signed a letter of intent for Gen-Z to transfer its specifications and assets to CXL, leaving CXL as the sole industry standard moving forward.[2]In January 2022, GenZ started the process of dissolving operations and transferring all assets to CXL.
References[edit]
- ^ab"Gen-Z Consortium".Group's web site.RetrievedMarch 31,2017.
- ^abCXL Consortium statement, 10 November 2021
- ^Agam Shah (October 11, 2016)."Hardware makers unite to challenge Intel with Gen-Z spec".CIO from IDG.Archived fromthe originalon October 12, 2016.RetrievedOctober 26,2021.
- ^abChris Mellor (October 11, 2016)."HPE, IBM, ARM, Samsung and pals in plot to weave 'memory fabric': Everyone but Intel and Cisco working together to build storage-class memory".The Register.RetrievedOctober 26,2021.
- ^"Gen-Z Technology".intelliprop.com.Retrieved2019-08-02.
- ^"OpenFabrics Alliance (OFA) and Gen-Z Consortium Announce MoU Agreement".12 May 2020.
- ^Evan Koblentz (February 3, 2017)."New PCI Express 4.0 delay may empower next-gen alternatives".Tech Republic.RetrievedMarch 31,2017.
- ^abTallis, Billy (February 13, 2018)."Gen-Z Core Specification 1.0 Published".Anandtech.RetrievedOctober 26,2021.
- ^Jeff Defilippi (October 11, 2016)."How do AMBA, CCIX and GenZ address the needs of the data center?".ARM Community blog.RetrievedMarch 30,2017.
- ^Chris Mellor (October 14, 2016)."Why OpenCAPI is a declaration of interconnect fabric war: Any standard but Intel in another CPU-memory interconnect consortium".The Register.RetrievedMarch 30,2017.
- ^Compute Express Link(CXL) Consortium and Gen-Z Consortium (April 2, 2020)."CXL Consortium and Gen-Z Consortium Announce MOU Agreement"(PDF).RetrievedApril 11,2020.
- ^Gen-Z Consortium (April 2, 2020)."CXL Consortium and Gen-Z Consortium Announce MOU Agreement".RetrievedApril 11,2020.
- ^"Gen-Z Consortium's Activity Lineup at Upcoming Flash Memory Summit, SC20".Inside HPC.October 23, 2020.RetrievedOctober 26,2021.