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June 25th, 2019

Marvell Powers HPE Servers with Next-Generation Ethernet Technology

By Todd Owens, Technical Marketing Manager, Marvell

Data is the new currency for many businesses today.  The ability to access, analyze and act on data has become a competitive advantage for many companies.  While much attention is paid to the storage devices and compute required to optimize data processing, the I/O infrastructure is often overlooked.  The reality is that I/O technologies are just as important as the core count of the CPU or storage capacity and latency of the storage array.  The time is now to future-proof your network and that’s where Marvell is here to help.

Marvell has been a long-time Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) supplier of I/O technology used in the HPE ProLiant, Apollo, HPE Synergy, and HPE Storage offerings.  Over the past year, a new generation of Ethernet I/O has begun making its way into these HPE platforms.  Based on Marvell® FastLinQ® QL41000 and QL45000 Ethernet technology, these new adapters are allowing HPE customers to “future-proof their network” connectivity for what’s to come in the near future of data centers.

The QL41000 and QL45000 adapter technology provides several new capabilities not found in other I/O offerings for HPE.  Advancements include:

  • Universal RDMA – provides customers with flexibility through concurrent support for both RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) and iWARP RDMA protocols on the same adapter.
  • SmartAN™ Technology – enables auto-negotiation for transitioning from 10GbE to 25GbE connections. SmartAN automatically configures the adapter for bandwidth and error code correction based on the cabling configuration and switch port settings the adapter is connected to.
  • Storage Offload – Converge Network Adapter offerings include full hardware offload for iSCSI and FCoE protocols which greatly reduces the CPU resources required for transmitting storage traffic compared to the use of software initiators.

 

These are in addition to enhanced DPDK performance (up to 36Mpps bi-directional) and support for SR-IOV, TCP/IP stateless offloads, IEEE 1588 time stamping and more.

The FastLinQ 41000 series technology can be found in next-generation Flexible LOM Rack (FLR) and standup PCIe adapters for HPE ProLiant and Apollo servers.
Models include:

  • HPE Ethernet 10Gb 521-T Adapter
  • HPE Ethernet 10Gb 524SFP+ Adapters
  • HPE Ethernet 10/25Gb 621SFP28 Adapter
  • HPE Ethernet 10/25Gb 622FLR CNA
  • HPE StoreFabric 10Gb CN1200-T CNA
  • HPE StoreFabric 10/25Gb CN1300R CNA

These adapters allow HPE Server customers to future-proof their Rack and Tower servers with RDMA for use in Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) and Software Defined Storage (SDS) solutions; and make the transition from 10GbE to 25GbE connectivity seamless at the server.  These I/O devices are ideal for customers considering Microsoft Azure Stack HCI or VMware vSAN environments, or the deployment of any latency sensitive application.

The FastLinQ 45000 series technology can be found in next-generation mezzanine adapters for HPE Synergy, including:

  • HPE Synergy 10/20/25Gb 4820C Adapter
  • HPE Synergy 25/50GbE 6810C Adapter

With Universal RDMA support improved DPDK performance and high-bandwidth capability, these adapters are ideal for customers with VMware ESXi or Microsoft Hyper-V deployments, and for Telco or high-frequency trading applications.

Since many applications today will start to require more I/O performance and low latency RDMA, HPE’s next-gen Ethernet adapters will go a long way in future proofing networking connectivity for server customers.

For a complete list of Marvell FastLinQ Ethernet adapters for HPE Servers and the features they support, download our HPE FastLinQ Ethernet Quick Reference guide.  If you would like to discuss I/O technology or customer needs in more detail, contact our HPE team .  You can also visit the Marvell HPE microsite at www.marvell.com/hpe.

June 20th, 2019

Marvell’s ThunderX2 Server Ecosystem Expands with NVIDIA GPU and Software Support

By Larry Wikelius, Vice President, Ecosystem and Partner Enabling, Marvell

ISC High Performance, which just wrapped up today in Frankfurt, Germany, is one of the most significant server events of the year and is often a catalyst for key major industry announcements.  This year’s event was no exception with NVIDIA announcing its support for servers based on the Arm architecture.  With this move, NVIDIA will make its full stack of AI and high-performance computing software available to the Arm ecosystem by the end of 2019.  The stack includes all NVIDIA CUDA-X AI and HPC libraries, GPU-accelerated AI frameworks and software development tools such as PGI compilers with OpenACC support and profilers. NVIDIA’s full software suite support will enable the acceleration of more than 600 HPC applications and AI frameworks on Marvell® ThunderX2® systems.

NVIDIA’s support for Arm CPUs marks continued growth of the Arm-based server ecosystem.  Marvell has been a leading driver in the establishment of a standard, complete and competitive ecosystem around the Arm architecture ranging from low level firmware through system software to commercial ISV applications.  The Marvell ThunderX2 processor is the most widely deployed Arm server in the market today and the only Arm server on the prestigious top 500 super computer list with the Astra system at Sandia National Laboratories.

NVIDIA’s announcement underscores the growing momentum of Marvell ThunderX2 in both high-performance computing and cloud deployments.  The entire industry is very excited about the ability to combine the computational performance and memory bandwidth of ThunderX2 with the parallel processing capabilities of the GPU.  NVIDIA’s commitment to the complete software stack is particularly important and is yet another high value solution option in the broadly supported software offering on ThunderX2.  Most ThunderX2 systems have been designed with GPU support in mind from the beginning which enables a simple upgrade for today’s installed base.

Marvell welcomes NVIDIA to the ThunderX2 ecosystem and we look forward to working with customers on this exciting server solution.  See the press release here.

Read more about what the industry is saying about the announcement, and what this means to high-performance computing:

Forbes – NVIDIA Gives Arm a Boost In AI And HPC

The Next Platform – Nvidia Makes Arm A Peer To X86 And Power For GPU Acceleration

HPCwire – Nvidia Embraces Arm, Declares Intent to Accelerate All CPU Architectures

June 11th, 2019

Matt Murphy Talks Marvell Transformation, Four Deals and 5G with Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money

By Stacey Keegan, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, Marvell

Marvell President and CEO Matt Murphy joined Jim Cramer, host of the widely acclaimed finance television program, Mad Money, for an engaging discussion on where Marvell has been and where the company is headed.

Jim was interested in learning more about the four deals that Marvell announced over the last month including the acquisitions of Aquantia and Avera, and the 5G growth opportunities moving forward.

In his interview with Jim, Matt highlighted the key technologies needed to play in the infrastructure market—processors, networking, storage and security—all of which Marvell has.  Aquantia helps Marvell strengthen its move to the connected car where a best-in-class network is needed to address the trends in autonomous vehicles, electrification, and safety/security, and the shift from analog interfaces to Ethernet technology.

With the acquisition of Avera, Marvell essentially double downs on 5G, Matt explains.  He emphasizes that the 5G cycle is just beginning —“not even in the first inning yet”— with the build-out of this infrastructure starting now and continuing robustly through 2020.  Avera’s biggest end market exposure is base stations and Avera will enable a new custom chip design business for Marvell.

To hear more from Matt and Jim’s discussion, and learn about how Marvell is at the infrastructure epicenter to address 5G, the cloud, AI, enterprise hardware and the connected car, click the below video.

Marvell Technology CEO: We are ‘extremely well positioned’ for 5G from CNBC.

June 10th, 2019

Marvell Teams with Deloitte to Give Back to the Community

By Stacey Keegan, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, Marvell

The Marvell Finance team, in partnership with Deloitte, has undergone a significant transformation over the past three years to ensure the delivery of error-free financial reporting and analytics for the business. After successfully completing another 10Q filing on June 7, the Marvell Finance team and Deloitte celebrated by giving back to the local community and volunteering at Salvation Army. Proceeds from the donations sold in Salvation Army Family Stores are used to fund the Salvation Army’s Substance Abuse program in downtown San Jose. The program provides housing, work preparedness and rehabilitation free of charge to registered participants.

This event demonstrates Marvell’s commitment to enriching the communities where we live and work. Well done, team.

June 6th, 2019

Marvell Supports GSA Women’s Leadership Initiative – Join Us!

By Regan MacPherson, Chief Compliance Officer

 

Women today comprise 47% of the overall workforce; however, only 15% choose engineering.  As part of Marvell’s commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace, the company is proud to support the GSA Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) to make an impact for women in STEM moving forward.

 

The GSA WLI seeks to significantly grow the number of women entering the semiconductor industry and increase the number of women on boards and in leadership positions.


As part of the initiative, which was announced yesterday, the GSA has established the WLI Council that will create and implement programs and projects towards meeting the WLI objectives.  WLI Council harnesses the leadership of women who have risen to the top ranks of the semiconductor industry.  Marvell’s own chief financial officer, Jean Hu, alongside 16 other women executives, will utilize their experiences to provide inspiration for and sponsorship of the next generation of female leaders.

 

“I am honored to be amongst a highly talented and diverse group of women at GSA WLI Council to help ensure that women are an integral part of the leadership of the semiconductor industry,” said Jean Hu, CFO of Marvell. “Marvell and GSA share a vision to elevate the women in STEM and support female entrepreneurs in their efforts to succeed in the tech industry.”

 

For more information on the GSA WLI, please visit https://www.gsaglobal.org/womens-leadership/. You can also join the Leadership group on LinkedIn to get involved.

 

 

May 13th, 2019

FastLinQ® NICs + RedHat SDN

By Nishant Lodha, Product Marketing & Technical Marketing Manager, Marvell

A bit of validation once in a while is good for all of us – that’s pretty true whether you are the one providing it or, conversely, the one receiving it.  Most of the time it seems to be me that is giving out validation rather than getting it.  Like the other day when my wife tried on a new dress and asked me, “How do I look?”  Now, of course, we all know there is only one way to answer a question like that – if they want to avoid sleeping on the couch at least.

Recently, the Marvell team received some well-deserved validation for its efforts.  The FastLinQ 45000/41000 high performance Ethernet Network Interface Controllers (NICs) series that we supply to the industry, which support 10/25/50/100GbE operation, are now fully qualified by Red Hat for Fast Data Path (FDP) 19.B.

Figure 1: The FastLinQ 45000 and 41000 Ethernet Adapter Series from Marvell

Red Hat FDP is employed in an extensive array of the products found within the Red Hat portfolio – such as the Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), as well as the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and Red Hat Virtualization (RHV).  Having FDP-qualification means that FastLinQ can now address a far broader scope of the open-source Software Defined Networking (SDN) use cases – including Open vSwitch (OVS), Open vSwitch with the Data Plane Development Kit (OVS-DPDK), Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SR-IOV) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).

The engineers at Marvell worked closely with our counterparts at Red Hat on this project, in order to ensure that the FastLinQ feature set would operate in conjunction with the FDP production channel. This involved many hours of complex, in-depth testing.  By being FDP 19.B qualified, Marvell FastLinQ Ethernet Adapters can enable seamless SDN deployments with RHOSP 14, RHEL 8.0, RHEV 4.3 and OpenShift 3.11.

Being widely recognized as the data networking ‘Swiss Army Knife,’ our FastLinQ 45000/41000 Ethernet adapters benefit from a highly flexible programmable architecture. This architecture is capable of delivering up to 68 million small packet per second performance levels, plus 240 SR-IOV virtual functions and supports tunneling while maintaining stateless offloads. As a result, customers have the hardware they need to seamlessly implement and manage even the most challenging of network workloads in what is becoming an increasingly virtualized landscape. Supporting Universal RDMA (concurrent RoCE, RoCEv2 and iWARP operation), unlike most competing NICs, they offer a highly scalable and flexible solution.  Learn more here.

 

Validation feels good. Thank you to the RedHat and Marvell team!

May 1st, 2019

Revolutionizing Data Center Architectures for the New Era in Connected Intelligence

By George Hervey, Principal Architect, Marvell

Though established, mega-scale cloud data center architectures were adequately able to support global data demands for many years, there is a fundamental change taking place.  Emerging 5G, industrial automation, smart cities and autonomous cars are driving the need for data to be directly accessible at the network edge.   New architectures are needed in the data center to support these new requirements including reduced power consumption, low latency and smaller footprints, as well as composable infrastructure.

Composability provides a disaggregation of data storage resources to bring a more flexible and efficient platform for data center requirements to be met.  But it does, of course, need cutting-edge switch solutions to support it.  Capable of running at 12.8Tbps, the Marvell® Prestera® CX 8500 Ethernet switch portfolio has two key innovations that are set to redefine data center architectures: Forwarding Architecture using Slices of Terabit Ethernet Routers (FASTER) technology and Storage Aware Flow Engine (SAFE) technology.

With FASTER and SAFE technologies, the Marvell Prestera CX 8500 family can reduce overall network costs by more than 50%; lower power, space and latency; and determine exactly where congestion issues are occurring by providing complete per flow visibility.

View the video below to learn more about how Marvell Prestera CX 8500 devices represent a revolutionary approach to data center architectures.

 

 

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