Composable infrastructures direct-connect compute and storage resources, dynamically, using virtualized networking techniques controlled by software. Instead of physically constructing a server with specific internal devices (storage, network interface controllers (NICs), graphics processing units (GPUs), or field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)), or cabling the appropriate device chassis to a server, composable enables the virtual connection of these resources at the device level as and when needed.
Not bound by a fixed ratio of central processing units (CPUs) to storage, networking, etc., these products can assemble or “compose” a bare-metal compute system with the desired hardware configuration, essentially at run time. And they can “disassemble” it when no longer needed, returning those resources to a common pool. Many solutions also compose GPUs and / or FPGAs.
Liqid describes to their technology as “composable disaggregated infrastructure” which uses software to create bare-metal server instances from disaggregated pools of NVMe, Storage Class Memory, GPUs, FPGAs, NICs, and CPU/memory modules (servers/blades). The Liqid Command Center software is responsible for connect resources from approved hardware across high speed fabric, including their own PCIe switch. Liqid is hardware agnostic, but also manufactures non-volatile memory express (NVMe) storage devices in PCIe add-in card (AIC) formats.
The PCIe cables connecting the switch to these chassis essentially replaces the backplane—Liqid calls it a “rack-level backplane.” This allows Liqid to connect storage, GPUs, and FPGAs into the composable fabric servers.
Liqid Composable Infrastructure Product Brief Includes:
- Overview
- Highlights
- Usage and Deployment
- Evaluator Group’s Opinion
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