Paper Title: Gen-Z: High-Performance Interconnect for the Data-Centric Future

Paper Abstract: The public release of the Gen-Z Core Specification 1.0 allows silicon providers and IP developers to start working on products based on this exciting new interface. Gen-Z is the right way to address the worldwide explosion of data (180ZB annually by 2025) and the need for a high throughput, low-latency, scalable, memory-centric fabric. Gen-Z responds to the rapid rise in the number of extremely fast devices and enables a memory-centric architecture with full composability. It simplifies memory-to-memory transfers and eliminates the need for side channels and DMA, thus avoiding behind-the-curtain operations that are difficult to understand, evaluate, debug, or update. Gen-Z is designed with security as a key tenet and contains embedded access and security rights. Future versions of Gen-Z will meet the needs of emerging applications such as artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, real-time data analysis, the Internet-of-Things, and autonomous systems.

Paper Author: Kurtis Bowman, President, Gen Z Consortium

Author Bio: Kurtis Bowman is the Director of Technology and Architecture in Dell's Server CTO Office. He focuses on identifying pertinent new technologies and integrating them into Dell enterprise products. His current areas of interest include converged and hyperconverged systems, accelerators for HPC, machine learning, and data analytics. He has built teams and managed firmware and hardware development through entire lifecycles in both startups and mature companies. Kurtis has over 25 years’ experience in the architecture, development, and business justification of server, storage, commercial, and consumer computing products. Before joining Dell, he held technical leadership positions at Panasas, a high-performance storage company, and Compaq. He earned a BSEE from New Mexico State University. He holds five patents, has written articles in the technical and trade press, and introduced Gen-Z at the 2017 Flash Memory Summit.