PCI Express originated as a PCI successor, providing a serial interface suitable for 10-Gbit/s speeds. Intel first proposed the technology, code-named Arapahoe, in 2001 (see 'Wrap-A-Ho? Wazzat?'); the company then changed the name to 3GIO, then changed it again to PCI Express. Meanwhile, "Arapahoe" has stuck as the name of the working group formalizing PCI Express standards.
But PCI Express is meant for chip-to-chip connections. Advanced Switching tacks on the intelligence for more sophisticated topologies -- namely, the kind you'd find in a backplane or a switch fabric. It also adds intelligence for tailoring quality of service (QOS) or high-availability features.
Agere plans to use Advanced Switching with its PI-40 switch fabric, which already uses a 2.5-Gbit/s serial interface. Advanced Switching would provide an alternative to Agere's proprietary, Sonet-based interface, and it could be used to have the PI-40 chips talk to one another, or to connect them to the backplane.
The storage-networking world is another target for Advanced Switching. "Some of the high-end [storage area networking] systems are moving to a blade environment, and they need to tie those blades together," says Intel's Kumar. Moreover, a SAN's need for high QOS and low latency makes Ethernet a difficult fit for backplanes, he says.
Advanced Switching could likewise find uses in wireless backhaul, as carriers try to create services emulating Push to Talk from Nextel Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: NXTL). "You can't build that capability using Ethernet today. One of the issues is, you have to be able to pass control messages between nodes without a lot of latency," Kumar says.
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
