RESEARCH NOTE: Intel’s Disaggregated Server Rack

Does “Disaggregation” Really Mean Anything?

There’s been a lot of discussion about “disaggregated” servers, racks, and datacenters since Facebook and Intel promoted their vision for the phrase at the Open Compute Summit at the start of this year.  Haven’t we spent the last few decades disaggregating datacenter architecture?  And if so, what does disaggregation mean now? Is it something different?

Moor Insights & Strategy explains Intel’s disaggregated server rack and looks at the implications of Intel’s disaggregated server rack and the impacts on companies. You can download the complete paper here.

Outline:

• Executive Summary
• Hyperscale State-of-theArt
• What Does “Disaggregate” Mean?
• Intel, Facebook, OCP, and Disaggregation
• Copper Interconnects vs Intel’s Silicon Photonics
• System Architecture Implications
• Which Workloads Require Complete Disaggregation
• Implications
• Important Information About This Paper

Tables and Figures:

• Table 1: OCP DRS Compared to Current Designs
• Table 2: Copper interconnect standards for the middle of this decade
• Figure 1: Maximum Interconnect Bandwidth vs. Maximum Interconnect Length
• Figure 2: Physical Board Layoutsde
• • HP Moonshot Cartridge with Intel Atom processor
  • AMD SeaMicro processor card with AMD Opteron processor
  • Calxeda EnergyCard with EnergyCore SOCs
• Figure 3: Network and Fabric Topologies