Marvell held its annual Industry Analyst Conference in Santa Clara in early December where the company outlined its strategy over the next few years as well as making some important product announcements. Although Marvell has multiple business units, the sole focus of the event was on its AI data center business comprising custom compute and connectivity solutions.

A key message at the event was that customization is now extending beyond XPUs to the entire server, including NICs, CXL controllers, storage and other components. By leveraging its core IP in SerDes, D2D, advanced packaging, power management and optics, Marvell is positioning itself as a one stop shop for custom AI data center infrastructure. The company made three key announcements at the event:

Customized HBM with SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron

Marvell announced its custom HBM compute architecture developed in association with partners SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron. Instead of standard, JEDEC-based interfaces, Marvell’s solution uses smaller, customized interfaces that are optimized for the compute silicon. This reduces the silicon real estate in each die allowing HBM support logic to be integrated onto the base die. According to Marvell, its customized HBM solution results in a higher XPU performance with up to 70% lower interface power consumption compared to standard JEDEC-based HBM interfaces and up to 25% real-estate savings. These savings can be used to enhance compute capabilities, add new features or increase HBM memory capacity per XPU.

Alaska PCIe Retimer Chip

Marvell second announcement was a new PCIe retimer product line. PCIe Gen 6 is the first PCIe standard to use PAM4 signaling, replacing NRZ modulation used for the last 20 years. As data rates increase, the physical distance that signals can travel reliably reduces. Marvell’s Alaska P retimers address this by regenerating the signal to deliver reliable communication over specific distances. The retimers can be used on AI accelerator baseboards, server motherboards, riser cards or integrated into active electrical cables (PCIe AEC) and active optical cables (PCIe AOC) for emerging multi-rack server system architectures.

Aquilia coherent-lite DSP for Data Center Interconnect (DCI)

The final announcement was about Marvell’s new Aquila coherent-lite DSP. PAM4 is the standard technology for optical interconnects inside data centers while coherent-based DCI addresses regional data center connectivity, typically at distances of around 100-1,000 kilometres. However, as AI data centers transition from single building to multiple campus-based buildings, a new coherent-lite technology is required to connect GPUs at distances of up to 20 kilometres. Marvell’s Aquila is the industry’s first coherent-lite DSP optimized for 1.6 Tbps coherent optical transceiver modules operating at O-band wavelengths and is tailored for the emerging market for distributed campus data center interconnects spanning up to 20 km.

Selected Key Takeaways

1. Custom compute represents a major growth opportunity for Marvell over the next few years. A business with high barriers to entry, vendors need to have R&D scale, technical excellence, cutting edge IP as well as being able to operate on the latest cutting-edge process node – attributes which Marvell possesses. However, over time there is a risk that hyperscalers will develop their own expertise and follow the examples of Apple and Huawei and bring custom silicon design in-house.

2. Marvell has developed strategic partnerships with major players in the data center ecosystem, including key hyperscalers and HBM vendors. This should solidify its competitive edge over the next few years. However, a reliance on a few large tech companies could pose a risk to growth if these relationships falter or if expectations are not met.

Counterpoint Research’s recent report “Marvell – A One Stop Shop For Custom AI Infrastructure?” provides a review of the conference and is available to Counterpoint Research clients.

Table of Contents

Key Points

The Future is Custom

Custom Silicon XPUs

Customized HBM with SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron

Alaska PCIe Retimer Chip

Aqulia Coherent DSP

Analyst Viewpoint