OpenPOWER Summit North America 2019

OpenCAPI has the potential to revolutionize the way computers are organized. Custom off-chip components may coherently master memory transactions like any other on-chip component towards system memory, while slave components get integrated at the lowest point of coherency.

Taking advantage of the exciting new capabilities, the ultra-low latency and high bandwidth we took things a step further: We developed ThymesisFlow-P, a software defined interconnect that mixes OpenCAPI M1 and C1 modes to enable the integration of off-tray components in the same spirit as off-chip counterparts and thus enable Rack-scale disaggregation. ThymesisFlow-P materializes a resource “stealing” concept, where each server can request and use resources from a neighbor. This talk presents ThymesisFlow-P approach potential, the design, a live disaggregated memory demo and shares key experiences of the development journey.