Gen-Z is a high-speed fabric protocol which uses existing 802.3 or PCIe PHY infrastructure for accessing a disaggregated memory pool that resides on a different rack or server.
SMART Modular’s Gen-Z µDK is a compact standalone hardware platform designed to enable early adopters of the Gen-Z protocol to design beyond the boundaries of software-defined or hardware-assisted acceleration framework. It also allows them to explore the full capabilities of Gen-Z protocol for Memory-Driven Computing (MDC) applications.
SMART Modular’s μDK includes both hardware and software components for the Gen-Z Host and Gen-Z Device and will run end-to-end memory load-store accesses on a Gen-Z fabric out of the box. SMART Modular is offering a limited number of the specialised Gen-Z µDK.
Technical specifications
- Gen-Z Host supports four (4) high speed lanes. · Combination of Gen-Z devices (ZMM) which can provide 768GB of DDR4 memory.
- Stable Linux kernel with Gen-Z sub-system framework supports bridge driver and device tree (.dts) files.
- Accessory cables, power supply and debug boards provided for application bring-up.
- Kit comes in a small chassis with cooling fans, all of which can fit on a lab bench or workstation.
Use cases
- Enables extension of Gen-Z software eco-systems, such as a Linux framework and drivers.
- Offers development of Gen-Z cable hosts with advanced protocol features like collectives, atomics, and buffer operations.
- Validates and tests memory access load/store latencies over Gen-Z fabric.
- Functions as a complete, out-of-the-box reference design for use case demo purposes.
- Enables developers to explore Gen-Z capabilities directly from their lab desk, which saves time and money by integrating components, such as boards, chassis, modules, power supplies and fans in one kit.
- SMART’s Gen-Z μDK is built using FPGA components that allow in-field upgrades of firmware and hardware as new features are released, and to add custom features and offload functions for differentiation and prototyping.
