AMD, Broadcom, Cisco, Google, HPE, Intel, Meta and Microsoft aligned to develop a new industry stand
AMD, Broadcom,
Cisco, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Intel, Meta and Microsoft announced they have aligned to develop a new industry standard dedicated
to advancing high-speed and low latency communication for scale-up AI systems
linking in Data Centers.
Called the Ultra
Accelerator Link (UALink), this initial group will define and establish an open
industry standard that will enable AI accelerators to communicate more
effectively. By creating an interconnect based upon open standards, UALink will
enable system OEMs, IT professionals and system integrators to create a pathway
for easier integration, greater flexibility and scalability of their
AI-connected data centers.
The Promoter Group
companies bring extensive experience creating large-scale AI and HPC solutions
based on open standards, efficiency and robust ecosystem support.
Driving Scale-Up for AI Workloads
As the demand for
AI compute grows, it is critical to have a robust, low-latency and efficient
scale-up network that can easily add computing resources to a single instance.
Creating an open, industry standard specification for scale-up capabilities
will help to establish an open and high-performance environment for AI
workloads, providing the highest performance possible.
This is where
UALink and an industry specification becomes critical to standardize the
interface for AI and Machine Learning, HPC, and Cloud applications for the next
generation of AI data centers and implementations. The group will develop a
specification to define a high-speed, low-latency interconnect for scale-up
communications between accelerators and switches in AI computing pods.
The 1.0
specification will enable the connection of up to 1,024 accelerators within an
AI computing pod and allow for direct loads and stores between the memory
attached to accelerators, such as GPUs, in the pod. The UALink Promoter Group
has formed the UALink Consortium and expects it to be incorporated in Q3 of
2024. The 1.0 specification is expected to be available in Q3 of 2024 and made
available to companies that join the Ultra Accelerator Link (UALink)
Consortium.
“The work being
done by the companies in UALink to create an open, high performance and
scalable accelerator fabric is critical for the future of AI. Together, we
bring extensive experience in creating large scale AI and high-performance
computing solutions that are based on open-standards, efficiency and robust
ecosystem support. AMD is committed to contributing our expertise, technologies
and capabilities to the group as well as other open industry efforts to advance
all aspects of AI technology and solidify an open AI ecosystem,” said, Forrest
Norrod, executive vice president and general manager, Data Center Solutions
Group, AMD
"Broadcom is
proud to be one of the founding members of the UALink Consortium, building upon
our long-term commitment to increase large-scale AI technology implementation
into data centers. It is critical to support an open ecosystem collaboration to
enable scale-up networks with a variety of high-speed and low-latency
solutions.” – Jas Tremblay, vice president and general manager of the Data
Center Solutions Group, Broadcom
“Ultra-high
performance interconnects are becoming increasingly important as AI workloads
continue to grow in size and scope. Together, we are committed to developing
the UALink which will be a scalable and open solution available to help
overcome some of the challenges with building AI supercomputers.” said, Martin
Lund, Executive Vice President, Common Hardware Group, Cisco
“Open standards are
important to HPE as we innovate in supercomputing and increase access to
systems. As a founding member of the UALink industry consortium, we look
forward to contributing our expertise in high performance networking and
systems, and collaborating to develop a new open standard for accelerator
interconnects for the next generation of supercomputing.” – Trish Damkroger,
senior vice president and general manager, HPC & AI Infrastructure
Solutions, HPE
“UALink is an
important milestone for the advancement of Artificial Intelligence computing.
Intel is proud to co-lead this new technology and bring our expertise in
creating an open, dynamic AI ecosystem. As a founding member of this new
consortium, we look forward to a new wave of industry innovation and customer
value delivered though the UALink standard. This initiative extends Intel’s
commitment to AI connectivity innovation that includes leadership roles in the
Ultra Ethernet Consortium and other standards bodies.” – Sachin Katti, SVP
& GM, Network and Edge Group, Intel Corporation
“In a very short
period of time, the technology industry has embraced challenges that AI and HPC
have uncovered. Interconnecting accelerators like GPUs requires a holistic
perspective when seeking to improve efficiencies and performance. At UEC, we
believe that UALink’s scale-up approach to solving pod cluster issues
complements our own scale-out protocol, and we are looking forward to
collaborating together on creating an open, ecosystem-friendly, industry-wide
solution that addresses both kinds of needs in the future.” – J Metz, Ph.D.,
Chair, Ultra Ethernet Consortium
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