Marvell CSI: Software-defined storage processor virtualization is the future development direction

Latest update time：2021-08-30 22:54

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In the mobile field, when 4G LTE was just emerging, Marvell was at the forefront of the times. In December 2013, Marvell launched the industry's first 1,000-yuan LTE mobile phone single-chip solution. In June 2014, Marvell and ZTE jointly demonstrated the world's first LTE uplink carrier aggregation demonstration at the GTI Forum. In August, Marvell, China Telecom and Nokia jointly held the world's first carrier aggregation demonstration integrating FDD and TDD. In early November 2014, Marvell launched a 64-bit eight-core SoC chip. Perhaps many people don't know that Marvell is more influential in the storage and network chip business. On the afternoon of May 20, during the Huawei Network Conference, Michael Zimmerman, Marvell's global vice president and general manager of the CSI business unit, communicated with many domestic media and introduced Marvell's network and storage technologies, SDN, NFV strategies, development trends and cooperation with China.

Michael Zimmerman, Vice President and General Manager of Marvell's CSI Business Unit

Software-defined storage

Marvell has strong strength in technology. Generally speaking, Marvell's computing technology, network technology and storage technology are very good, and computing, networking and storage constitute very basic technical elements of cloud computing and future data centers.

"The most obvious change compared to ten years ago is that the trend of SDN and NFV virtualization is becoming more and more obvious. Many of our customers define the software specifications first during development, and then choose the hardware based on this." Michael said, "For Marvell, we will ensure that network equipment and network devices are user programmable in terms of software architecture and service architecture. And I think the future network will not be dominated by one manufacturer and one scenario. It will definitely be based on programmable hardware. Especially at the application level, many companies will cooperate and operate with each other to realize certain services. In the field of network, the programmability and interoperability of the network in the future is a very important trend."

In the area of software-defined storage, Marvell has a very unique advantage. From the perspective of chip suppliers, software-defined storage has the following concepts: First, the external hardware interface can be compatible with at least many types of storage, such as SATA, SaaS, PCIE and other different storage media and interfaces; second, it can support HDD or SS in a mixed manner; third, Marvell's existing technology can combine the storage controller and the ARM processor, and integrate a quad-core CPU on it. In this way, the controller can support SATA, SaaS, and PCIE interfaces at the same time, providing customers with different storage media, and running OpenStack software on the processor can support storage of different software.

In the storage field, Marvell sees two trends. One trend is that some storage devices will integrate traditional hard disks HDD and SSD together, and some disks also have hard disks HDD and SSD inserted on the front. The other trend is software-defined storage, SDS, or programmable storage.

Michael introduced that, therefore, in the field of storage, Marvell proposed a technical concept called FLC, the main purpose of which is to make some adjustments to the current level. Now, based on the development of technology, Marvell expects that the cost of NAND flash will be better than memory in the future, and remote storage will be placed in the cloud, thereby helping customers reduce costs. Marvell has recently released the concept of FLC, and everyone will see Marvell's FLC products in the next few months.

Strategies and planning for SDN and NFV

The trend of SDN and NFV virtualization is becoming more and more obvious. Michael believes that "the most critical SDN is to separate software and hardware, break the binding of large manufacturers, and reduce the cost of equipment and services. There are many possible ways to realize SDN, and Openflow is a commonly used method. Marvell builds an abstract layer for the Openflow forwarding path based on its general network chip, that is, the middle layer of the software, and integrates the Openflow client on it, which can be integrated with other network programmable architectures. I can support SDN very well."

"For NFV, Marvell provides solutions in two aspects: first, in terms of processors, Marvell's new generation of ARM processors will fully support virtualization, and different applications can run on them; second, in terms of network architecture, Marvell has adopted the design concept of supporting virtualization when designing the next generation of switches, and we are a leading manufacturer in the field of network equipment virtualization. We believe that we can better support the trend of NFV."

Focus on China market expansion and cooperation with Chinese customers

It happened to be during Huawei's Internet Conference. Marvell and Huawei have had an extensive and long-term cooperative relationship for more than a decade. Regarding the future cooperation prospects with Huawei, Michael said, "Our products are widely used in Huawei's carrier and enterprise businesses. In the future, we will continue to strengthen communication with Huawei in terms of hardware and software, and will also expand our cooperation."

"Marvell's connection with China starts from the heart, because Marvell's president, Weili Dai, is from Shanghai, and the top management is from China," Michael said. "Marvell will continue to strengthen cooperation with leading Chinese customers, including the provision of solutions. In the future, there will be further cooperation with customers in terms of technical specifications and definitions. From Marvell's perspective, the world's two largest economies are the United States and China, and we will continue to invest in the United States and China in the future."

(Source: Jiwei.com Author: Chen Ran)

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