Open programmable infrastructure (OPI) project, redefining dpu/ipu

Data processing unit （DPU） And infrastructure processing units （IPU） It is changing the way enterprises deploy and manage computing resources through the network ;OPI（Open Programmable Infrastructure） Will foster an ecosystem , To facilitate the adoption of these innovative technologies ,

SmartNIC、DPU、IPU Or new CIPU, Although there is a lack of uniform standards in terms of nomenclature , But with CPU It is the general trend to change from a data centric architecture to a data centric architecture . new generation DPU/IPU The common feature of the devices is that they use multi-core which is easy to program CPU、 Advanced network interface and a group of powerful networks 、 Storage and security accelerator , It can be programmed to perform multiple software defined hardware acceleration functions .

6 month 21 Japan ,Linux The foundation announced a new open programmable infrastructure （OPI） project .OPI Will be based on DPU and IPU The next generation architecture and framework of technology foster a community driven 、 Standards based open ecosystems .OPI Designed to simplify networking in applications 、 Storage and security API, So as to develop operation and maintenance 、 Realize more portable and high-performance applications in the cloud and data center between security operation and maintenance and network operation and maintenance .

OPI Its founding members include Dell technologies 、F5、 Intel 、 It's German technology 、Marvell、 NVIDIA and Red Hat, Coverage from chip and device manufacturers 、 Independent software developers 、 Testing and measurement partners 、 OEM to end user .

“ When a new technology comes along , It tends to promote technological development and business innovation , But it also faces the problems of lack of open standards and community support ,”Linux Senior vice president of foundation projects Mike Dolan say .“DPU/ IPU It is the most promising technology model in the field of cloud computing and data center ,OPI Will support DPU/ IPU Technology ecosystem to accelerate application development .”

DPU and IPU Increasingly used to support 5G、AI/ML、Web3.0、crypto And other applications , Because they are across the network 、 Calculation 、 Flexibility in managing resources in the security and storage areas . The server is no longer a cloud 、 Edge or data center infrastructure unit , Operators can now create services created by DPU、IPU、GPU and CPU Decentralized networks supported 、 Computing and storage resource pools , To meet customers' application workloads and expansion requirements .

OPI Will help DPU/IPU The infrastructure to build and nurture an open 、 Creative software ecosystem . With DPU / IPU There are more and more manufacturers ,OPI The purpose of the project is to help define... That can be applied to any manufacturer's hardware products DPU/IPU Architecture and framework of software stack ; Leverage existing and appropriate open source projects , Such as DPDK、SPDK、OvS、P4 etc. , Cultivate a rich open source application ecosystem .

OPI The project aims to ：

1. Definition DPU and IPU
2. Describe the... Based for any hardware solution DPU and IPU Vendor independent framework and architecture of the software stack
3. Support for creating a rich open source application ecosystem
4. With existing open source projects with the same vision （ Such as Linux kernel ） Integrate
5. Create a new API, Used with DPU and IPU The elements of the ecosystem interact , Including hardware 、 Managed applications 、 Remote configuration and orchestration of host nodes and software

With the launch of several working groups , The initial technical contribution will be IPDK（Infrastructure Programmer Development Kit, Infrastructure programmer development kit ） In the form of , The toolkit is now made up of Linux Managed by the foundation OPI An official subproject of .IPDK Are drivers and for infrastructure offload and management API Open source framework of , Running on the CPU、IPU、DPU Or switch .（IPDK： Open source development framework in the era of programmable infrastructure ）

Besides , Ying Wei Da DPU Open source software development framework DOCA Will also be contributed to OPI, To help developers create a platform that can span DPU、IPU And other hardware platforms 、 Accelerated and isolated applications .

DOCA（Data Center Infrastructure-on-a-Chip Architecture） NVIDIA is dedicated to BlueField DPU To create a highly programmable SDK Development platform tools , Provide simple development interface for developers , Programmers can take advantage of API、 Libraries and sample code to create and accelerate applications .

With DOCA Also contributed to OPI, This means that there are two major DPU Software frameworks are moving towards open source , So now in the market DPU/IPU Software ecology is complex 、 More frames 、 Interface miscellaneous 、 Whether the problem of high development difficulty will come to an end ？

Official website ：https://opiproject.org

GitHub：https://github.com/opiproject/opi

【 Activity column 】

【 Reprint notice 】

If the reprinted article is an original article , You can leave messages in the corresponding article or in the official account ; Other non reprinted articles should be marked with no less than 14 It's marked in font Reprinted from SDNLAB.

【 contribute 】

Welcome to the smart network card /DPU、SDN、SD-WAN、 Deterministic networks 、TSN、5G、 Network slicing and so on 、 News 、 Technical contributions .

Contacts ：kk__wu( WeChat ID )

Send email ：[email protected]

Please refer to ：2022 SDNLAB Original article Award Program