Doug Fuller: Unlocking the Potential of Software Engineering at Cornelis Networks
Introduction:
evolve and innovate at a faster pace. With AI assisting in tasks like forecasting, planning, and problem-solving, companies will have more time and resources to focus on advancing their technologies and pushing the boundaries of what is possible. This will lead to enhanced efficiency, improved software quality, and a deeper understanding of customer needs and market trends. Overall, generative AI has the potential to transform the industry, empowering individuals and organizations to become multidisciplinary experts and driving advancements in hardware and software solutions. At Cornelis Networks, we are excited to leverage the power of AI to deliver cutting-edge networking solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers in HPC, cloud computing, and AI applications.
Full Article: Doug Fuller: Unlocking the Potential of Software Engineering at Cornelis Networks
Vice President of Software Engineering at Cornelis Networks, Doug, is responsible for overseeing the software stack of the company. This includes driving the development of the Omni-Path Architecture drivers, messaging software, and embedded device control systems. Doug brings with him extensive experience in software engineering, having previously led teams at Red Hat in the field of cloud storage and data services. His career in high-performance computing (HPC) and cloud computing began at Ames National Laboratory’s Scalable Computing Laboratory, and he later joined the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Cornelis Networks is a technology leader that specializes in delivering purpose-built high-performance fabrics for HPC, High Performance Data Analytics (HPDA), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. The company caters to a wide range of clients, including commercial, scientific, academic, and government organizations.
Doug’s passion for computer science can be traced back to his early experiences with technology. Growing up, he found enjoyment in working with computers and was particularly fascinated by the Internet. His interest in HPC was piqued when he had the opportunity to tour an HPC lab during his freshman year of college. Since then, he has been deeply involved in the world of supercomputers.
During his time at Red Hat, Doug worked on the Ceph distributed storage project. This allowed him to branch out from his previous focus on HPC and delve into technologies that were crucial for cloud infrastructure. He discovered that many principles of scalability, manageability, and reliability are similar across both HPC and cloud computing, despite the slight variances in the problems they aim to solve. This experience highlighted the potential for cross-learning between the two domains. It also reinforced Doug’s belief in the value of Open Source and the importance of executing the upstream-first software development philosophy.
In his current role as Vice President of Software Engineering at Cornelis Networks, Doug’s responsibilities encompass various aspects of the company’s software stack. This includes overseeing the development of Omni-Path Architecture drivers, messaging software, fabric management, and embedded device control systems. His typical day is far from average, as he tackles different technology challenges, collaborates with hardware architects to ensure product excellence, and engages with customers and collaborators to understand their needs.
Cornelis Networks’ hardware offerings comprise high-performance switched fabric networks tailored for HPC, cloud, and AI applications. The company provides essential devices for seamless integration, such as the Omni-Path Host-Fabric Interface (HFI), a low-profile PCIe card for endpoint devices. Additionally, Cornelis Networks offers a 48-port 1U “top-of-rack” switch and two fully-integrated “director-class” switches with 288 ports in 7U and 1152 ports in 20U.
The management of this infrastructure is facilitated by Cornelis Networks’ software. Their embedded management platform ensures easy installation, configuration, and access to performance and configuration metrics. The driver software is developed as part of the Linux kernel, with all software patches being submitted directly to the Linux kernel community. This approach ensures maximum compatibility and simplifies integration with other software tools. The Omni-Path fabric manager (FM) optimizes traffic routes and rapidly recovers from faults, ensuring high performance and reliability across fabrics of all sizes. The newly released Omni-Path Express (OPX) messaging software, designed to reduce latency, leverages open standard interfaces like OpenFabrics Interfaces (OFI) for improved performance.
Scalability is a fundamental aspect of the entire Cornelis Networks network. Cray link-layer technology is utilized to correct link errors without impacting latency, making it particularly crucial for large-scale fabrics. The fabric manager prioritizes the programming of optimal routing tables in a swift manner, allowing even the most extensive fabrics to have efficient routing completion times. OPX emphasizes minimizing cache utilization, improving scalability on nodes with large core counts, and reducing latency for faster time to completion. Strategic integration with libfabric enables scalable endpoints using standard interfaces, enhancing network performance.
While specifics on how AI is incorporated into Cornelis Networks’ workflow remain confidential, Doug hints at the exciting possibilities. The improvements made to Omni-Path for supporting AI workloads internally bode well for their customers and partners. Omni-Path’s latency and scalability enhancements enable efficient scaling of infrastructure, which is crucial when dealing with AI’s demanding requirements. Traditional networks, such as Ethernet, can easily impede network performance, and Cornelis Networks’ solutions seek to overcome these limitations.
Looking ahead, Doug acknowledges the transformative potential of generative AI. Rather than making human beings obsolete, generative AI will make them more productive. It will empower leaders in companies to focus on innovations in their respective fields, leveraging the accurate forecasting, reporting, and planning capabilities provided by generative AI. Doug envisions a future where generative AI assistants make each individual a multidisciplinary expert, allowing for a deeper understanding of customers’ unique applications and enabling the design of more effective hardware and software solutions.
In conclusion, Doug’s leadership and expertise in software engineering drive the advancements at Cornelis Networks. By developing purpose-built high-performance fabrics for HPC, HPDA, and AI, the company helps organizations across various sectors leverage cutting-edge technologies. Through their innovative hardware and software solutions, Cornelis Networks addresses the challenges of latency, scalability, and performance to enable seamless integration of HPC, cloud, and AI applications.
Summary: Doug Fuller: Unlocking the Potential of Software Engineering at Cornelis Networks
drive greater diversity and inclusivity. By automating certain tasks and providing unbiased insights and recommendations, generative AI can help eliminate human biases and create a more level playing field for underrepresented groups. This will lead to more innovative and inclusive solutions in the industry.
In conclusion, as the Vice President of Software Engineering at Cornelis Networks, Doug is responsible for driving the development of high-performance networking solutions for HPC, HPDA, and AI applications. With his extensive experience in software engineering and a deep understanding of the industry, Doug is leading the way in creating innovative and scalable solutions that will shape the future of computer science. The incorporation of generative AI and its potential impact on the industry further solidifies Cornelis Networks’ position as a technology leader in the field.
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