Beyond the Memory Wall: Storage Innovations for AI's Next Frontier

The relentless pursuit of AI and HPC performance is driving a paradigm shift in data center architectures. Emerging memory technologies like HBM and innovative interconnects such as CXL, UALink, and UCIe are reshaping the landscape, bringing compute closer to data. This session delves into the critical role of storage in this evolving ecosystem. We will explore how storage innovations, including Flexible Data Placement, SDXI, and Computational Storage, can seamlessly integrate with these new memory fabrics and interconnects. By optimizing data movement, placement, and processing, we aim to overcome the challenges posed by the memory wall and unlock the full potential of in-memory and near-memory computing. Together, we will identify opportunities to accelerate AI and HPC applications while addressing the demands of emerging workloads and standards. Key topics: The impact of emerging standards (CXL, UALink, UCIe, RDMA/RoCE, UMI) on data center architectures. The need for storage to adapt to these new memory fabrics and interconnects. The potential benefits of integrating storage and memory technologies. The role of storage innovations in addressing the challenges of AI and HPC workloads. Overcoming the memory wall through in-memory/near-memory computing and storage optimization. The importance of efficient data movement and placement. The role of computational storage in accelerating AI workloads.