Latest Marvell Blog Articles
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November 06, 2024
Encrypting Data in Use: How HSMs Can Advance Next-Generation Confidential Compute
By Bill Hagerstrand, Director, Security Business, Marvell
It’s time for more security coffee talk with Bill! I was first exposed to the term “Confidential Compute” back in 2016 when I started reading about this new radical technology from Intel. Intel first introduced us to this new idea back in 2015, with their 6th generation of CPUs called Skylake. The technology was named SGX (Software Guard Extensions), basically a set of instruction codes that allowed user-level or OS code to define a trusted execution environment (TEE) already built into Intel CPUs. The CPU would encrypt a portion of memory, called the enclave, and any data or code running in the enclave would be decrypted, in real-time or runtime, within the CPU. This provided added protections against any read access by other code running on the same system.
The idea was to protect data in the elusive “data in use” phase. There are three stages of data: at rest, in motion or in use. Data at-rest can be encrypted with self-encrypting hard drives—pretty much standard these days—and most databases already support encryption. Data in-motion is already encrypted by TLS/SSL/HTTPS/IPSec encryption and authentication protocols.
Data in use, however, is a fundamentally different challenge: for any application to make “use” of this data, it must be decrypted. Intel solved this by creating a TEE within the CPU that allows the application and unencrypted data to run securely and privately from any user or code running on the same computer. AMD provides a similar technology it calls AMD SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization). ARM, meanwhile, calls its solution Arm CCA (Confidential Compute Architecture). Metaphorically, a TEE is like the scene in courtroom dramas where the judge and the attorneys debate the admissibility of evidence in a private room. Decisions are made in private; the outside world gets to see the result, but not the reasoning, and if there’s a mistake, the underlying materials can still be examined later.
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October 29, 2024
Nine Things to Remember About the Future of Copper in Computing
By Michael Kanellos, Head of Influencer Relations, Marvell and Vienna Alexander, Marketing Content Intern, Marvell
Is copper dead?
Not by a long shot. Copper technology, however, will undergo a dramatic transformation over the next several years. Here’s a guide.
1. Copper is the Goldilocks Metal
Copper has been a staple ingredient for interconnects since the days of Colossus and ENIAC. It is a superior conductor, costs far less than gold or silver and offers relatively low resistance. Copper also replaced aluminum for connecting transistors inside of chips in the late 90s because its 40% lower resistance improved performance by 15%1.
Copper is also simple, reliable and hearty. Interconnects are essentially wires. By contrast, optical interconnects require a host of components such as optical DSPs, transimpedance amplifiers and lasers.
“The first rule in optical technology is ‘Whatever you can do in copper, do in copper,’” says Dr. Loi Nguyen, EVP of optical technology at Marvell.
2. But It’s Still a Metal
Nonetheless, electrical resistance exists. As bandwidth and network speeds increase, so do heat and power consumption. Additionally, increasing bandwidth reduces the reach, so doubling the data rate reduces distance by roughly 30–50% (see below).
As a result, optical technologies have replaced copper in interconnects five meters or longer in data centers and telecommunication networks.
Source: Marvell
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October 24, 2024
Cloud-Managed Enterprise (CME) Switches Powered by SONiC
By Gidi Navon, Senior Principal Architect, Marvell
Open Networking is not a new concept. SONiC (the Software for Open Networking) has been around for some time, and cloud-managed campus switches based on proprietary NOS (Network Operating System), are also not new. What’s truly novel is the comprehensive solution that finally brings open-source SONiC to the campus networks and adds to it a layer of cloud management and zero trust provisioning, all running on a cost-optimized hardware platform specifically tailored to campus networks: “Cloud Managed Enterprise” or CME.
In recent years, Open Networking offered the hyperscale operators the option to use open-source software on a variety of merchant silicon, providing freedom from the lockdown imposed by the big system vendors. The next challenge was to bring similar benefits to campus networks, particularly to what is now referred to as CME.
This blog will demonstrate how the Marvell ® Prestera® switches, equipped with a comprehensive Software Development Kit, along with the collaborative efforts of a vibrant industry community called OpenLAN Switching (OLS), have created this open cloud-managed solution for campus networks.
The power of a community
The first thing to recognize is that it took teamwork from multiple companies to create this open solution. Under the umbrella of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), various companies gathered and created a working group called OpenLAN. Within OpenLAN, two sub working groups formed: OpenWi-Fi and OpenLAN Switching (OLS), which is the subgroup relevant to this discussion.
Numerous companies actively participated in the collaborative effort—Figure 1 mentions just some of them—organized according to their role in the solution.
Figure 1: Breakdown of companies involved in OpenLAN Switching
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September 25, 2024
Marvell COLORZ 800 Named Most Innovative Product at ECOC 2024
By Michael Kanellos, Head of Influencer Relations, Marvell
With AI computing and cloud data centers requiring unprecedented levels of performance and power, Marvell is leading the way with transformative optical interconnect solutions for accelerated infrastructure to meet the rising demand for network bandwidth.
At the ECOC 2024 Exhibition Industry Awards event, Marvell received the Most Innovative Pluggable Transceiver/Co-Packaged Module Award for the Marvell® COLORZ® 800 family. Launched in 2020 for ECOC’s 25th anniversary, the ECOC Exhibition Industry Awards spotlight innovation in optical communications, transport, and photonic technologies. This recognition highlights the company’s innovations in ZR/ZR+ technology for accelerated infrastructure and demonstrates its critical role in driving cloud and AI workloads.
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September 22, 2024
Five Things to Know About the Future of Long Distance Optics
By Michael Kanellos, Head of Influencer Relations, Marvell
Coherent optical digital signal processors (DSPs) are the long-haul truckers of the communications world. The chips are essential ingredients in the 600+ subsea Internet cables that crisscross the oceans (see map here) and the extended geographic links weaving together telecommunications networks and clouds.
One of the most critical trends for long-distancer communications has been the shift from large, rack-scale transport equipment boxes running on embedded DSPs often from the same vendor to pluggable modules based on standardized form factors running DSPs from silicon suppliers tuned to the power limits of modules.
With the advent of 800G ZR/ZR+ modules, the market arrives at another turning point. Here’s what you need to know.
It’s the Magic of Modularity
PCs, smartphones, solar panels and other technologies that experienced rapid adoption had one thing in common: general agreement on the key ingredients. By building products around select components, accepted standards and modular form factors, an ecosystem of suppliers sprouted. And for customers that meant fewer shortages, lower prices and accelerated innovation.
The same holds true of pluggable coherent modules. 100 Gbps coherent modules based on the ZR specification debuted in 2017. The modules could deliver data approximately 80 kilometers and consumed approximately 4.5 watts per 100G of data delivered. Microsoft became an early adopter and used the modules to build a mesh of metro data centers1.
Flash forward to 2020. Power per 100G dropped to 4W and distance exploded: 120k connections became possible with modules based on the ZR standard and 400k with the ZR+ standard. (An organization called OIF maintains the ZR standard. ZR+ is controlled by OpenROADM. Module makers often make both varieties. The main difference between the two is the amplifier: the DSPs, number of channels and form factors are the same.) ®
The market responded. 400ZR/ZR+ became adopted more rapidly than any other technology in optical history, according to Cignal AI principal analyst Scott Wilkinson.
“It opened the floodgates to what you could do with coherent technology if you put it in the right form factor,” he said during a recent webinar.
Recent Posts
- Encrypting Data in Use: How HSMs Can Advance Next-Generation Confidential Compute
- Nine Things to Remember About the Future of Copper in Computing
- Cloud-Managed Enterprise (CME) Switches Powered by SONiC
- Marvell COLORZ 800 Named Most Innovative Product at ECOC 2024
- Five Things to Know About the Future of Long Distance Optics
