A host of electronic industry heavyweights are joining forces to create a single interconnect technology specification, so multiple processor architectures and accelerators can seamlessly share data.
AMD, ARM, Huawei, IBM, Mellanox, Qualcomm and Xilinx are collaborating on new Cache Coherent Interconnect for Accelerators (CCIX) that will allow processors using different instruction set architectures to share data to enable heterogeneous computing. This specification could significantly improve computer efficiency for servers running data center workloads, the companies say.
The companies are working toward improving the power and space constraints in systems that have become a big issue in the data center. The need to move data seamlessly among the various system components will benefit big data analytics, search, machine learning, NFV, wireless 4G/5G, in-memory database processing, video analytics and network processing. CCIX will allow these components to access and process data regardless of where it resides without the need for complex programming.
“A ‘one size fits all architecture’ approach to data center workloads does not deliver the required performance and efficiency,” says Lakshmi Mandyam, Director of Server Systems and Ecosystems at ARM. “CCIX enables more optimized solutions by simplifying software development and deployment of applications that benefit from specialized processing and hardware off-load, delivering higher performance and value to data center customers.”
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