MaxLinear and Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT) have come together to introduce a groundbreaking Software-Defined Storage (SDS) solution that promises to revolutionize the handling of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. This new solution is set to be unveiled at the 2024 Supercomputing Conference (SC24) in Atlanta, marking a significant milestone in the strategic collaboration between the two technology giants. By integrating MaxLinear’s cutting-edge storage acceleration technology with QCT’s scalable storage platform, this partnership aims to offer an efficient, high-performance storage solution designed to meet the ever-growing data demands associated with AI, machine learning, HPC, and data analytics.
Strategic Collaboration for Advanced Storage Solutions
The main goal of this partnership is to address the burgeoning need for quick access to expansive datasets while enhancing performance and scalability. The solution leverages MaxLinear’s ZFlush™ technology, the Panther III Storage Accelerator System on Chip (SoC), and QCT’s QuantaGrid D54Q-2U Server platform. This combination results in exceptional storage efficiency, optimized capacity, and superior file input/output (I/O) performance, making it ideal for large-scale distributed storage systems.
A key component of this solution is QCT’s QuantaGrid D54Q-2U Server, which is specially designed to meet the hot-tier storage requirements of HPC and AI applications. This server incorporates MaxLinear’s storage acceleration technology, significantly improving performance for parallel file systems. As part of their forward-looking strategy, QCT is also collaborating with MaxLinear to develop the QuantaGrid D55Q-2U platform, which promises breakthrough performance levels.
MaxLinear’s Panther III Storage Accelerator SoC
MaxLinear’s software-defined storage solution includes a versatile toolkit equipped with flexible hardware offload capabilities. This toolkit significantly optimizes storage system performance by reducing latency and enhancing throughput, thereby delivering efficient data services for block, object, and file storage types. Central to this innovation is the Panther III Storage Accelerator SoC, a next-generation accelerator designed to offload crucial data services such as compression, deduplication, security, and data protection from general-purpose processors. This offloading accelerates data movement and boosts overall system efficiency in AI-driven workloads.
This solution’s standout feature is its focus on AI-scale storage, purpose-built to satisfy the high throughput, low latency, and reliable storage requirements of AI and machine learning applications. The enhanced performance, scalability, and reliability offered by this solution are instrumental in helping enterprises and hyper-scalers build advanced storage systems with increased capacity and efficient file I/O operations, thereby significantly improving CPU utilization.
Enhancing Storage Performance and Scalability
MaxLinear’s Vice President of Ethernet & Storage Accelerators, Vikas Choudhary, emphasized the growing need for advanced storage solutions capable of keeping pace with the increasing data volumes driven by AI and other data-intensive applications. By integrating MaxLinear’s Panther III accelerated data services for the Zettabyte File System (ZFS) with QCT’s robust multi-tier storage platform, this partnership offers a powerful solution for accelerating parallel file system performance in distributed storage environments. This enables organizations to leverage distributed file systems more effectively for AI and big data applications.
Stephen Chang, the AVP of Quanta Cloud Technology, highlighted the significance of this partnership in delivering a comprehensive solution that enhances storage performance, scalability, and reliability. By combining their respective technological strengths, MaxLinear and QCT empower enterprises and hyper-scalers to build flexible, high-performance distributed compute and storage architectures optimized for AI-scale workloads and next-generation data-intensive applications.
The Next-Generation QuantaGrid D55Q-2U Platform
QCT’s advanced storage platform provides a scalable and reliable framework designed to meet the rigorous demands of compute-intensive HPC and AI workloads. The next-generation QuantaGrid D55Q-2U, which features Intel Xeon Gen 6 processors, fine-tunes read/write throughput and input/output operations per second (IOPS). This platform offers flexible storage configurations capable of accommodating either low-latency all-flash NVMe solutions or larger-scale storage solutions. Such flexibility ensures that both immediate and long-term data growth needs are met, supporting up to 24 Gen5 NVMe SSDs or a combination of 12 3.5” HDDs and 12 Gen5 NVMe SSDs depending on workload requirements.
MaxLinear’s accelerated software-defined storage marks a significant leap forward in storage technology. This innovation expands the boundaries of storage performance for data services within hyper-converged infrastructure, hyperscale storage architecture, distributed file systems, and databases. The inclusion of MaxLinear’s Panther III Storage Accelerator SoC speeds up these data services, delivering impressive data throughput of up to 200Gbps and scalability reaching an astounding 3.2Tbps. This SoC leverages advanced technologies such as single-pass data reduction, security, data protection, deduplication (MaxHash™), and real-time validation (RTV) to ensure maximum efficiency and reliability in data processing.
Advanced Data Reduction and Security Features
One key advantage of the Panther III Storage Accelerator is its capability to achieve a remarkable 12:1 data reduction ratio through a combination of compression and deduplication techniques. This efficiency significantly reduces the storage footprint while maximizing storage capacity utilization. Moreover, the Panther III Storage Accelerator incorporates industry-standard encryption algorithms, such as Suite B Secret & Top-Secret Decryption/Encryption, to provide robust data protection. These algorithms ensure that data remains secure against unauthorized access or breaches, enhancing overall security.
The long-term vision for MaxLinear focuses on accelerating data services for software-defined storage, driven by the continuously growing demands of data-intensive applications. By integrating their Panther III Storage Accelerator SoC, MaxLinear ensures best-in-class data integrity and full real-time validation, delivering consistent and reliable storage performance even under the most demanding workloads.
In addition to hardware advancements, QCT’s comprehensive storage solution effectively integrates cutting-edge offerings for various infrastructure demands, including 5G Telco/Edge, AI/HPC, Cloud, and Enterprise. QCT’s product lines encompass hyper-converged and software-defined data center solutions, offering an extensive suite of servers, storage, and network switches tailored to different business verticals and workload parameters. This broad spectrum of equipment ensures that QCT’s solutions are versatile and capable of efficiently handling a wide range of computational and storage requirements.
The detailed forward-looking statements by MaxLinear highlight the company’s optimism regarding the potential market opportunities for their SDS solution, developed in collaboration with QCT. However, these statements are tempered with caution due to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These risks include market conditions, competitive pressures, global economic factors, the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry, and geopolitical tensions, all of which could influence the adoption and success of their storage solutions.
Future Prospects and Innovations
MaxLinear and Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT) have joined forces to launch an innovative Software-Defined Storage (SDS) solution poised to transform how artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads are managed. This advanced solution will make its debut at the 2024 Supercomputing Conference (SC24) in Atlanta, symbolizing a significant milestone in the strategic partnership between these two tech leaders.
The collaboration combines MaxLinear’s leading-edge storage acceleration technology with QCT’s scalable storage platform, aiming to provide an efficient, high-performance storage solution. This new offering is specifically designed to address the increasing data demands that come with AI, machine learning, HPC, and data analytics. By leveraging the strengths of both companies, the partnership intends to deliver a robust solution capable of meeting the growing needs of the tech industry, particularly in data-intensive fields.
This development is highly anticipated, as the integration of advanced storage technologies with scalable platforms holds great promise for enhancing performance and efficiency in data-heavy applications. MaxLinear’s expertise in storage acceleration, coupled with QCT’s reputation for scalable solutions, sets the stage for a storage solution that could drastically improve how data is handled and processed in AI and HPC environments. As these technologies continue to evolve, the need for faster, more efficient storage solutions becomes ever more critical, making this partnership a timely and important advancement in the tech world.
