Marvell in Collaboration With Foxconn-Ingrasys, Accton and Kioxia to Accelerate End-to-End Ethernet Storage Adoption

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. is working with SSD vendor Kioxia Corp. and original design manufacturers (ODMs) Foxconn-Ingrasys and Accton Technology Corp. to bring its Ethernet Bunch of Flash (EBOF) technology solutions to market.

As data growth continues to soar, data centers are faced with demand for greater storage bandwidth and capacity as well as lower latency. The EBOF architecture provides an approach to address these challenges by offering an Ethernet fabric to scale flash and optimally disaggregate storage from compute. This results in performance and lower TCO for edge, enterprise and cloud data centers.

This announcement helps accelerate the adoption of EBOF platforms that incorporate Marvell’s NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) Ethernet SSD controllers, NVMe-oF Ethernet SSD converter controllers and Prestera CX 8500 family of switches with Storage Aware Flow Engine technology. EBOF technology provides flexibility for data center operators to develop their infrastructure and enables them to meet evolving workload demands with scalable units of disaggregated storage.

In currently deployed and shipping Just a Bunch of Flash (JBOF) architectures, which are comprised of server-class CPUs, DRAM and the PCIe fabric, compute and storage continue to be underutilized, with storage servers typically oversubscribed, resulting in increased capital and operational expenditures. EBOF technology is designed to replace JBOF architecture by integrating the Ethernet network interface directly into the flash drive. Compared to the existing JBOF architecture, The company’s EBOF architecture can deliver 3X the performance while consuming lower power and enabling greater than 65%^(*) TCO savings.

“Marvell’s innovative EBOF architecture is poised to revolutionize edge to cloud data centers by addressing the growing needs for increased storage efficiencies and lower overall TCO,” said Nigel Alvares, VP, solutions marketing, Marvell. “We are excited to be collaborating with industry leaders Kioxia, Foxconn-Ingrasys and Accton to proliferate the unique and game-changing disaggregation values of Ethernet storage to cloud data center operators, SDS providers, server and storage system OEMs.”

“It is clear that EBOF has the potential to be highly advantageous by enabling optimal storage disaggregation, eliminating costly CPU and DRAM components and increasing overall data center storage efficiencies,” said Benjamin Ting, VP, Ingrasys, Inc. a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology Group.” The ecosystem that we are establishing with Marvell will have far-reaching implications, making it much easier for our customer base to incorporate this technology into their next-gen storage systems.”

“We have great confidence in EBOF technology and its ability to disrupt the global storage market,” said C.C. Lee, president, Accton Technology Corporation. “Through this collaboration, our customers will have direct access to everything they need to begin storage infrastructure deployments using EBOF, and this is cerain to be pivotal in accelerating its idespread adoption.”

“Kioxia’s collaboration with Marvell, Foxconn-Ingrasys and Accton is pioneering the Ethernet-attached storage ecosystem. Our work together will realize what has, up until now, remained a dream of storage architects – the ability to deliver direct-attached performance from network-attached devices,” stated Alvaro Toledo, VP, SSD marketing and product planning, Kioxia America, Inc. “This EBOF concept is a significant leap forward in enabling the true potential of NVMe over fabrics, eliminating network bottlenecks, and driving efficiency gains to a wide range of industry segments.”

EBOF platform highlights:

Foxconn-Ingrasys EBOF platform is a 2U chassis with 24 SSDs in a U.2 form factor and 48 SSDs in an EDSFF E1.S form factor.
Accton EBOF platform is a 2U chassis that can accommodate 24 SSDs in a U.2 or EDSFF E1.S and EDSFF E1.L (9.5mm) form factor.
Compliant to SNIA SFF-9639 standards
Marvell’s EBOF SDK version 1.0, leveraging the SONiC network OS
Latest gen of enterprise NVMe SSDs from Kioxia

Customer samples will be available in early 2Q20.

^(*) Excludes SSD costs for each architecture

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