The Back End AI Network Puts Pressure On The Front End
TheNextPlatform, Friday, November 8th, 2024
For most of the history of high performance computing, a supercomputer was a freestanding, isolated machine that was designed to run some simulation or model and the only link it needed to the outside world was a relatively small one to show some visualization.
With the GenAI version of artificial intelligence, the whole point is to constantly take in data from the outside world and to constantly output recommendations or actions to that outside world in response. And that means that just as AI clusters will need fat, fast, and lossless networks to not waste time - and therefore money - on those very expensive AI servers crammed with GPUs and perhaps other kinds of AI accelerators, the front end networks that link AI systems to the outside world are probably going to need an upgrade from the typical 10 Gb/sec speeds still common in the enterprise.
And that is why companies like Arista Networks are doubly excited about GenAI. Literally.