OpenPOWER Summit North America 2019

Domain-specific accelerators (DSAs) are expected to be used in the data center and at the edge for a wide range of applications including machine learning, inferencing, video transcoding, database acceleration, blockchain and other applications. The Open Domain-Specific Architecture (ODSA) is a new incubation effort in the Open Compute Project.

The ODSA project aims to enable silicon vendors, systems vendors, data center operators and others to create high-performance DSAs at low development cost and time through the use of chiplet-based designs. In chiplet-based designs, an integrated product is implemented across multiple die, referred to as chiplets, but functions as though it is implemented on a monolithic IC. Chiplet-based designs require physical and logical interfaces between chiplets.

Specifically, the ODSA aims to do the following:
1. Define open physical and logical interfaces to allow chiplets from multiple vendors to interoperate. Unlike today’s closed systems, product designers can combine best-in-class chiplets from multiple vendors.
2. Create a marketplace of chiplets that support these interfaces. Create reference implementations, business practices and operational workflows to assemble DSAs with chiplets from the marketplace.

This talk will provide a technical introduction to the ODSA, recent technical results from the group and discuss the potential application of Open Power technologies, including the OMI.