CXL Consortium gives members the opportunities to share their thoughts on being a CXL member. Xconn Technologies recently shared details around its contributions to the development of the CXL standard, the importance of CXL Consortium membership, and the future of CXL technology in the data center, cloud and AI computing, as well as HPC industries.
Can you share a brief introduction of Xconn Technologies?
Founded in 2020, Xconn Technologies is a Silicon Valley based IC startup that develops Compute Express Link® (CXL®) and PCIe® switch ICs to enable the next generation of connectivity solutions for data center and AI computing. Our founders have years of experience and deep knowledge in switching and connectivity technology for the computing industry and our mission is to create the world’s best interconnect solutions for AI/HPC – leading the industry in performance, energy efficiency, port density, scalability, and total cost of ownership.
Xconn Technologies proudly revealed the world’s first CXL 2.0/PCIe 5.0 switch ASIC Apollo-I engineering sample at Flash Memory Summit (FMS) 2022. Apollo-I is an essential component for the emerging CXL ecosystem – enabling a scalable CXL memory expansion and memory pooling solution and unlocking huge benefits for CXL memory systems with multiple hosts. We continue to work with our partners and customers to enable scalable CXL solutions, with a roadmap of products to support future iterations of CXL technology.
What prompted Xconn Technologies to join the CXL Consortium?
The co-founders of Xconn Technologies identified CXL as an essential solution for the future of data centers and AI computing and joined as an adopter member during the very first week of the Consortium’s establishment. Xconn Technologies later up leveled its membership to contribute to the CXL specification as a contributor member.
CXL Consortium members represent the major companies operating within the cloud computing industry, and establishes a centralized location for addressing existing issues and proposing new solutions and technologies to advance modern computing.
What expertise does Xconn Technologies bring to the Consortium?
The Xconn Technologies team has extensive experience in system solutions for data center connectivity and network switching. Our founding team members have experience designing PCIe switches, ethernet switches, and DPUs. A patent pending switch architecture was invented by the team and implemented in the Apollo-I silicon, which enables high capacity, high speed, low latency, and efficient switching for a CXL/PCIe fabric/network.
What is the biggest advantage of CXL Consortium membership? How does Xconn Technologies participate?
CXL Consortium membership provides access to an assembly of top experts from the cloud computing world, giving us an opportunity to collaborate and contribute toward solving real problems. It is also a well-structured organization with great industry leadership.
Xconn Technologies contributes to both technical and marketing activities, collaborating with member companies to work on Proof of Concept (POC) systems and real production systems.
What use cases do you feel will be ideal targets for CXL technology? Which market segments do you believe will benefit most from CXL?
In our opinion, cloud and AI computing, which both utilize huge memory footprints, will likely lead the charge for the initial broad adoption of CXL technology given that CXL technology plays an essential role in the migration of computer architecture to a composable and disaggregated architecture. Xconn Technologies’ CXL-based switch enables scalable memory expansion and memory pooling solutions, both necessities for the industry. We feel that the computing industry will witness enormous benefits from adopting CXL technology.
What does Xconn Technologies see as CXL’s impact within your industry?
Given Xconn Technologies’ active involvement in data center, cloud and AI computing, and HPC industries, we are already witnessing some of the industry’s heavyweights not only adopting CXL but also actively contributing to its advancement. More ICs integrated with CXL technology are starting to roll out as more system companies adopt CXL as a key revolutionary technology for driving innovations and improving efficiency – which will result in an even stronger CXL ecosystem in the near future. Xconn Technologies is proud to be actively contributing to this effort with our CXL-based switch IC.