Marvell Announces Industry's First Commercial Switch Platforms with Dent to Accelerate Smart Retail and Enterprise Edge Infrastructure

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) today announced that its Prestera^® Ethernet switch platforms incorporating Dent are being deployed by leading enterprise customers worldwide, enabling a new era of autonomous networking. Dent, a project of The Linux Foundation, provides an open, modern network operating system supported by a rich ecosystem of software providers and hardware ODMs to bring lower total cost of ownership and efficient operation to the distributed enterprise edge. With these customer deployments, Marvell is helping to accelerate the build-out of Ethernet switching infrastructure in emerging applications in the borderless enterprise, such as autonomous retail, by offering faster and secure connectivity. The new technologies offered by Marvell in collaboration with the Dent ecosystem and Linux Foundation allow retailers to transform physical stores to smart retail connected environments that benefit consumers through easy, efficient, and effortless in-store experiences.

With Dent's first release of its Linux-based network operating system, codenamed "Arthur," on Marvell's Prestera switch platforms, enterprises can easily transition to disaggregated networks while benefiting from flexibility in deployment and customization by virtue of open source. Dent uses the Linux 5.6 Kernel and leverages SwitchDev to simplify integrations, eliminate complex abstractions, and support existing Linux toolchains.   

"Our continued collaboration with the Dent community enables us to expand our industry-standard application interfaces on our Prestera switch portfolio, allowing our customers to leverage the full network operating software ecosystem, and the flexibility of open source," said Guy Azrad, general manager and senior vice president, Switch Business Unit, Marvell. "In addition, the optimized technology of our switch devices brings network visibility, intelligence, performance and security features required for the borderless enterprise. This combination is helping to accelerate the transition to open disaggregated networks and the continued growth of deployments at or near the network access edge."

"We are thrilled that Marvell is part of the Dent ecosystem, helping to bring innovative solutions for automated and personalized user experiences for the smart edge and retail networking," said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT, the Linux Foundation. "The next generation of remote buildings, retail stores and enterprises will have workloads and services close to the applications and users. A simple, disaggregated Linux/SwitchDev-based switch to power this borderless enterprise will enable an ecosystem of apps to simplify integration across the ecosystem." 

"Military R&D brings unique challenges, and it's paramount that we make technology choices that facilitate flexibility for emerging mission requirements. We've found that open source software is crucial to achieve the robustness and flexibility our mission demands; it gives us a balance of cost effectiveness, choice and capability ownership," said Jonathan Polom, engineer, U.S. Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center. "Our R&D efforts have made extensive use of leading open source software, particularly the Linux kernel. We're excited to see a community developing and contributing support for new hardware platforms into the upstream kernel sources."

Rich Ecosystem

"Delta has built complete white box networking platforms based on Dent technology, helping drive a disaggregation model in edge that offers cost and flexibility benefits to customers looking for OEM solutions," said Todd Gregory, director for White Box Networking at Delta Electronics (America). "The deployment of our 1G and 10G Ethernet switch boxes with Marvell's Prestera devices and the Dent OS in real world applications demonstrates the power of open source to accelerate technology innovation in networking."

"As a leader in open networking, we have seen the power of open source technologies and the impact they have on transforming how information technology is developed and used today," said Larry Ho, VP Software Engineering, Edgecore Networks. "We look forward to working closely with Marvell and other members of the Dent open source community to further transform the way the businesses connect and enable the transition to disaggregated networks."

"The Linux revolution has finally reached the networking domain. We at PLVision are honored to have contributed through our collaboration with Marvell, focusing our efforts on a Switchdev driver and Dent OS development for their devices. It has been an incredible opportunity for us as a software product development services vendor that specializes in networking and, specifically, NOS to drive and foster open-source innovation," said Leonid Khedyk, CTO of PLVision. "Marvell's determination and strategic vision signify the superior level of this market player's maturity. With its leadership in edge computing devices, narrowly tuned for edge applications, Marvell is the best candidate as a driving force for the Linux Foundation's Dent Project."

"We are excited to be working with Marvell to commercialize the Dent Linux Foundation project that empowers modern network infrastructure for the distributed enterprise. With Dent and Sartura's Replica.one software stack, Marvell switch customers can experience open source networking supported on state-of-the-art switch silicon from Marvell," said Luka Perkov, CEO, Sartura. "Sartura is pleased to collaborate with Marvell to bring differentiated Linux-based networking technologies to the Dent community. Industries that place critical importance on security, flexibility and openness, namely federal agencies and other government bodies, recognize and utilize the advantages of this approach. Sartura will continue to collaborate with Marvell and the Dent community to accelerate the adoption of disaggregated networking for our customers."

"WNC is excited to see adoption of our 1G and 10G Ethernet switch white box solutions based on the continued momentum in the Dent ecosystem as customers look for open source options for edge networking," said Larry Lee, EVP and GM of WNC's Networking Business Group. "The availability of our platforms with Marvell's leading Prestera switch devices and the Dent OS will help customers accelerate deployments for distributed enterprise edge applications across vertical markets."

For more information about Marvell's portfolio of switch solutions for the borderless enterprise, please visit here. 

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