How Cisco sees Silicon One Easing Network Convergence and Helping with AI update from April 2024

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Impartial no longer too long ago, Cisco held a Tech Focus on concerned about Cisco’s Silicon One and how the corporate believes you should well well presumably presumably also converge a community without compromise. This methodology simplifying operations, affirming security, and optimizing performance. In general, companies deserve to desire from some of the three and compromise between the assorted two. The dialogue moreover shed mild on how Cisco is dealing with the upward push of AI.

Pierre Ferragu, who heads up the worldwide technology infrastructure learn team at Fresh Avenue Research, hosted the session. He became joined by Eyal Dagan, EVP of the corporate’s Well-liked Hardware Crew, and Rakesh Chopra, Cisco Fellow within the Well-liked Hardware Crew.

The must beget one thing diversified

Rakesh started the dialogue by having a glimpse abet to the initiating of Cisco Silicon One in late 2019. “We realized that we at Cisco—and each person else within the industry—had been making the an identical mistakes usually,” he said. It’s possible you’ll perchance well presumably salvage the an identical raze end result ought to you procedure an field with the an identical organizational constructing and technology.”

The company shook issues up. “We first created a brand original group at Cisco that Eyal runs,” he said. “This original group is concerned about constructing one architecture in silicon that you should well well presumably presumably also utilize across your community and moreover across diversified business fashions.”

Covering the rotund community and solution home

Rakesh added that Cisco focused broadly on the total community and solution home. The company invested a protracted time and dollars to enable the convergence of routing and switching and plowed over one thousand million dollars into Silicon One. Cisco sees this as a main industry shift.

“We’re the industry’s first genuinely scalable networking silicon architecture,” he said. “And that becomes important in case you birth taken with the role of silicon in AI networking.”

Some industry watchers dangle known as out Cisco for being proprietary as a consequence of Silicon One, however there could be a precedent at the abet of what Cisco is doing. Classic motive silicon is real that – frequent motive. This makes it OK at many issues however no longer broad at anything. The most productive example of here is the GPU. A CPU does moderately just a few issues neatly, however no longer accelerated computing, which is why there could be plenty funding today in GPUs for AI. Fortinet moreover makes its silicon to take care of security processing. Cisco requires buyer silicon for networking and chooses to develop it themselves to bring the performance and parts it knows its prospects need today.

Helping prospects develop AI networks on Ethernet

Rakesh likes to take into epic AI in two buckets. He sees the first bucket—using synthetic intelligence to fortify Cisco products and services and products—as a orderly piece of Cisco’s earnings. On the assorted hand, as vital as that is, the corporate’s main focal point is promoting Cisco products to enable its prospects to develop AI networks.

Relating to web scalers, Eyal mighty that two kinds of networks in facts facilities are severe to working AI apps. As well to to the front-dwell community we’re all mindful of, there’s a abet-dwell community, in most cases InfiniBand, that has traditionally been outdated college to join storage clusters and the like. Cisco moreover sees Ethernet as an answer, especially on the earth of web-scale.

“We dangle got prospects who’re deployed at scale with Ethernet-essentially based totally mostly AI networks,” he said. “And all of the others are actively trialing Ethernet AI.” Cisco moreover says it will give vital efficiency boosts for vitality-hungry, saving a megawatt of vitality for a single AI/ML cluster.

Deciding on the factual silicon model

Eyal got here on to chat about prices and working within the safe-scale world. Three silicon fashions exist: merchant, ASIC, and fabless COT (or buyer-owned tooling). “Cisco outdated college to be an ASIC home, and we tranquil utilize, in some instances, merchant silicon,” he said. “But we moved in a pleasant methodology within the closing Five or six years to a fabless COT.”

At the an identical time, there became a travel from branded boxes to white boxes within the abet dwell. That is for a easy motive—the invoice of supplies. White boxes, within the factual environment, will be much extra cheap.

Final thoughts

Since launching Silicon One, Cisco has been working arduous to manufacture it into a viable quite a whole lot of to the favorite ASIC procedure. With the upward push of AI and its broad affect on networking, the corporate has pivoted abruptly to enable prospects to originate the most of its converged networks to flee taxing AI apps.

The presentation by Eyal and Rakesh equipped a helpful look into their strategic pondering and became a welcome respite from the AI vaporware we’re uncovered to day-to-day.

Zeus Kerravala is the founder and predominant analyst with ZK Research.

Be taught his other Network Computing articles here.

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