Title: Challenges in Hyperscale Serviceability

Speaker: Rob Chappell 

Abstract:

With the advent of the cloud, computing has been elevated to the status of a utility.  Much like water or electricity, the cloud is assumed to be ubiquitous and always available, enabling computing to permeate nearly every facet of modern life.  However, providing uninterrupted compute at global scale requires maintaining the health of millions of silicon server components, all of which are at risk from hardware bugs, defects, marginalities, and wear out.  In this talk, I’ll discuss the serviceability challenges of maintaining a hyperscalar fleet, how the problem is getting worse, and how hardware serviceability features must evolve to meet the future requirements.

Keynote

Corporate Vice President, General Manager, Data Center and AI Product Management, Intel Corporation

Dr. Zane A. Ball is a Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Data Center and AI (DCAI) Product Management Group. DCAI Product Management is responsible for end-to-end stewardship of DCAI’s systems, SW, CPU, GPU, and custom product line through the entirety of the product lifecycle.  Prior to his product management role, Ball was CVP and GM of platform engineering and architecture for Intel’s data center business.  Ball has also served as Co-GM of Intel’s foundry effort as a VP in the Technology and Manufacturing group and VP of the Client Computing Group including roles as GM of the desktop client business and as GM of global customer engineering.

Ball has a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and Ph.D. in electrical engineering, all earned from Rice University.  He also holds six patents in high-speed electrical design.