Day Two Cloud 179: Will CXL Make Composable Infrastructure Real?

On today’s Day Two Cloud podcast we talk about Compute Express Link (CXL), a technology for composable infrastructure. The idea is to take all the peripherals in a system—memory, network cards, graphical processing units, and so on—and put them on a bus outside the chassis to share them among multiple hosts. Is this the dream of composable infrastructure coming true? We get into what CXL is, how it works, and why you might want to use it with Craig Rodgers, Solutions Architect at Camlin Group; and Chris Hayner, Lead Consultant at HMC Technology. We discuss: * What CXL is and where it sits in the hardware stack * PCIe and CXL * How CXL compares to existing technologies like Optane PMEM and NVMe * Where are we in the development of the CXL specification? * What’s included in versions 1.1, 2.0, and 3.0? * What type of devices would you probably find on a CXL bus (if that’s even the right term)? * Security issues * More Sponsor: CDN77 Why should you care about CDN77? To retain those 17 out of 20 people who click away due to buffering. CDN77 is a global Content Delivery Network (CDN) optimized for video and backed by skilled 24-by-7 support. Go to cdn77.com/packetpushers to get your free, unlimited trial. Show Links: About CXL – ComputeExpressLink.org @CraigRodgersMs – Craig Rodgers on Twitter Utilizing Tech podcast on CXL. Chris Hayner’s blog @hayner80 – Chris Hayner on Twitter Hear Ned and Chris hosting the Chaos Lever podcast Transcript: [00:00:00.170] – Ethan Why should you care about CDN 77 to retain those 17 out of 20 people who click away due to buffering? CDN 77 is a global content delivery network optimized for video and backed by skilled twenty four seven support. Visit CDN 77 dot slash packet pushers to get your free unlimited trial. [00:00:27.450] – Ned Welcome to day two Cloud. And today we’re talking about CXL, this revolutionary new technology that’s going to take the world by storm and completely change the way everything works. Ray? [00:00:38.510] – Ethan Ethan I mean, kind of. [00:00:40.380] – Ethan Because if we can take all the peripherals that are in a system, the memory and network cards and graphical processing units, and stick them on a bus that’s outside the chassis and share them amongst multiple hosts, wouldn’t that change everything? I think it kind of would. [00:00:54.370] – Ned I think it might. It’s the dream of composable infrastructure that I’ve heard for so many years. It could actually finally become a thing. And we’ve got two people who are deeply steeped in the technology. Craig Rogers. He’s a solutions architect at the Kamlin Group. And Chris Hayner he’s a lead consultant at HMC Technology. They’ve been doing the research and taking the briefings, so they’re going to tell us all about CXL. Well, Craig and Chris, welcome to the show. Glad you both could make it. Today we’re going to be talking about CXL, and so probably we should start at the ground level here. Craig, can you briefly describe to me what CXL is and where it sits in the overall h...