Flash Memory Summit happened last week but we didn’t want to let it go by without having our own storage expert comment on some of the announcements there. Lots of talk around CXL happened along with the ever-present discussion of the impending issues with Intel Optane, as covered by Stephen on the Gestalt IT Checksum. Oh, and that tiny little 128TB SSD that Samsung showed off. What were the big takeaways from Flash Memory Summit? This and more on this week’s Rundown. Head to GestaltIT.com for show notes.
0:37 | Post-Quantum Algorithm SIKEd Out
We covered the results of the NIST competition for a post-quantum cryptography solution last month on the Rundown. In addition to the four finalists there were four additional solutions picked for further testing. As of today that’s now down to three because one of them, the Supersingular Isogeny Key Encapsulation (SIKE) algorithm, has been broken. Not only was SIKE unable to protect against potential quantum attacks but the math needed to invalidate it was done on a regular desktop PC in about an hour. The authors are disappointed but mention that the connections between the attack vector and their proposal were unexpected and need to be investigated. Tom, does this add up to you?
Read More: Post-quantum encryption contender is taken out by single-core PC and 1 hour
3:51 | Verge.io Goes Virtual with GPUs
Verge.io, the company formerly known as Yottabyte, announced a new piece of virtual hardware to their virtual datacenter offerings this week. They now offer virtual GPUs for use in composable compute and HCI. The increasing needs of research into machine learning, AI, and other complex math subjects spurred Verge.io to begin offering the service to their customers. Stephen, is this GPU offering going to add power to the Verge.io offering with customers?
Read More: Simplifying Software-Defined Datacenter with Verge.io
7:06 | Broadcom Goes Big with Tomahawk 5
Broadcom has released a new version of the Tomahawk datacenter switch platform and it’s pretty speedy. The fifth generation of the line boasts a throughput of 51.2 terabits per second. The lineup can run 64 800Gbps ports or 256 200Gbps ports. The capacity of the switch puts it on par with the latest announcement from Nvidia, which also announced a switch of simliar speed at GTC this year. The switch is aimed at cloud and hyperscale networking companies to help drive adoption of those faster port speeds. Tom, do you think this new Tomahawk chip is going to win the day for Broadcom?
Read More: Broadcom challenges Nvidia’s Spectrum-4 with 51.2T switch silicon
10:33 | FCC Cancels Starlink Grant
The FCC has decided that Starlink isn’t getting a big check. In an announcement this week the federal regulator said that the tentative agreement to award $885 million under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) grant in 2020 was being reversed. The FCC also canceled a proposal from LTD Broadband along simliar lines. The rejections state that the FCC believes that Starlink and LTD would be unable to provide the promised service to the proposed census blocks. Also of issue was using public funds to subsidize a program that requires a $600 dish purchase up front. Stephen, do you think this is going to cause issues for Elon Musk’s Orbital Modem Factory?
Read More: FCC cancels Starlink’s $886 million grant from Ajit Pai’s mismanaged auction
15:30 | Cisco Compromised by LAPSUS$
Cisco is the latest victim of a hacking crew bent on gaining access to high profile targets. Back in May of this year a reported member of the LAPSUS$ hacking team managed to compromise a Cisco employee’s Google account and found that the employee’s credentials were stored in the browser so they could be synced between systems. The bad actor in question managed to convince the employee to accept multifactor authentication (MFA) push notifications sent by the attacker to allow them access to the corporate VPN. The attack, which is using some venerable hacking techniques, seems to be a calling card of LAPSUS$. Tom, could this be bad for Cisco?
Read More: Cisco admits hack on IT network, links attacker to LAPSUS$ threat group
19:14 | Flash Memory Summit in a Flash
Flash Memory Summit happened last week but we didn’t want to let it go by without having our own storage expert comment on some of the announcments there. Lots of talk around CXL happened along with the ever-present discussion of the impending issues with Intel Optane, as covered by Stephen on the Gestalt IT Checksum. Oh, and that tiny little 128TB SSD that Samsung showed off. Stephen, what were your big takeaways from Flash Memory Summit?
Read More: Flash Memory Summit thematic extraction
30:17 | The Weeks Ahead
Tech Field Day Extra at VMware Explore US 2022 – August 29-31, 2022
Networking Field Day 29 – September 7-9, 2022
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