The network becomes the computer as Cisco and Nvidia accelerate AI factory rack-scale
The first phase of the generative artificial intelligence infrastructure boom was defined by a race for graphics processing units. The next phase will be defined by what happens after those GPUs arrive.
As the AI infrastructure buildout continues to advance rapidly the building and deploying massive accelerated-computing systems, and the challenge is shifting from acquiring silicon to turning thousands, and eventually hundreds of thousands, of GPUs, switches, storage systems and software components into a single productive machine. It’s this mainstream shift that puts conventional networking into the center of the AI infrastructure story.
In exclusive interviews with theCUBE, senior Nvidia Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. networking executives laid out the architecture and economics behind an expanded Cisco Secure AI Factory with Nvidia. The companies, working with the ecosystem, are pushing the system to liquid-cooled rack scale while combining Nvidia’s accelerated-computing and Spectrum-X architecture with Cisco networking, software, management and enterprise operating expertise.
The Cisco-Nvidia announcement Tuesday is important, but the bigger story is that it signals that the AI infrastructure is moving from a GPU acquisition cycle into an AI production cycle, and Nvidia is increasingly defining the architecture of the entire AI infrastructure factories.
