Upscale AI Unveils SkyHammer™ Architecture           

A Ground-Up Design for Scale-Up AI Networking at Massive Scale

Upscale AI today offers a first glimpse of SkyHammer™, a clean-slate architecture purpose-built to overcome the fundamental limits of scale-up AI networking. With SkyHammer, Upscale AI reinvents what “scale” truly means in scale-up networking. While traditional front-end switches, PCIe fabrics, and proprietary topologies strain under the demands of explosive AI growth, SkyHammer has been designed from day one to power the world’s largest AI clusters with deterministic latency, extreme bandwidth, and predictable performance at scale.


Why Must Scale-Up Start from the Ground-Up?

Scale-up interconnects fuse CPUs, GPUs, and memory into a unified compute domain where every device shares data through native load/store access at nanosecond latency.

The result: an entire AI cluster operates as one coherent unit.

Conventional data center networks, built for servers and storage, can’t sustain the collective, synchronized demands of trillion-parameter AI models. Scale-up fabrics deliver guaranteed bandwidth, deterministic latency, and true rack-scale performance, purpose-built for the next era of AI.

In summary, scale-up AI interconnects redefine connectivity itself, setting the boundaries of how far compute can scale.

Efficiency and scale can’t come from retrofits. The baggage of retrofitting multiple problems to a single solution only leads to unforeseen tradeoffs.

Open by design. Diverse by architecture. That’s what it takes to build AI at scale.

Traditional approaches that have tried to bridge the gap using front-end switches, PCIe fabrics, or proprietary topologies deliver sub-optimal results. A from-inception scale-up optimized architecture offers several compelling advantages:

  • AI-Native by Design: Purpose-built for the GPU era, engineered around collective AI workloads, not legacy server or storage constraints.
  • Open and Predictable: Built on open standards with transparent roadmaps and ecosystem collaboration, eliminating lock-in and enabling choice.
  • Truly Next-Generation: A clean-sheet architecture that moves beyond incremental upgrades, unlocking new levels of performance, efficiency, and scalability.
  • Operationally Resilient: Simplified by design for the AI era, delivering the stability, trust, and reliability that large-scale AI systems demand.

In short, AI demands more than “good enough” networking. It needs a ground-up fabric designed for the AI era.

How SkyHammer™ Redefines Ground Up Design

SkyHammer is not about stripping things away. It is about building only what truly matters. Every design choice was intentional, focused on delivering fast, predictable, and power efficient performance for AI workloads. Instead of inheriting features that add complexity and latency, SkyHammer includes only what is essential for large scale AI clusters to perform as one cohesive system. It has been architected from the ASIC up, designed holistically across the chip, system, and rack to ensure every layer works in harmony. Capabilities such as deterministic flow control, real time telemetry, adaptive load handling, and built in resiliency are part of the core, not bolted on later. The result is a clean, open, and purpose-built architecture that performs with precision at any scale.

This architectural discipline is what defines SkyHammer. It represents a shift from incremental thinking to intentional design, where performance, predictability, and openness are built in from the very start.

Enter SkyHammer™:

SkyHammer™ is the result of relentless engineering innovation and execution since Q3 2024, in collaboration with the world’s leading hyperscalers and GPU vendors. Every aspect of SkyHammer™ was reinvented, from how data flows through silicon, to how fabrics adapt under load, to how superclusters stay predictable under synchronized stress. At its core, it’s not about building silicon for scale-up, it’s about engineering it to scale effortlessly across the rack, systems, and beyond. The result: a platform that doesn’t just patch bottlenecks, it erases them.

Built for the Standards that Define the Future

The scale-up landscape continues to evolve rapidly, and SkyHammer was designed with adaptability at its core. The foundation of AI democratization lies in an open architecture, from silicon through software, that fosters interoperability and choice. From the outset, we recognized that interconnect standards would evolve in form and function, and that foresight is what defines the brilliance of SkyHammer.

SkyHammer is engineered to support multiple open standards and interconnect protocols, ensuring technology remains an enabler, not a constraint. It supports emerging standards such as ESUN, UEC, and UALink, as well as future innovations yet to take shape. With its flexible  architecture, SkyHammer adapts seamlessly to new definitions without redesign or compromise, ensuring interoperability across open and diverse environments while maintaining performance, empowering innovation without lock-in.

“With AI compute demands exploding, the industry urgently needs open, scalable, and cost-efficient solutions; SkyHammer is a step squarely in that direction,” said Robert Hormuth, Corporate Vice President, Architecture and Strategy, Data Center Solutions Group, AMD.

“AI infrastructure is entering a phase where traditional data center fabrics can no longer keep pace with the scale and synchronization AI demands,” said Alan Weckel, co-founder of the 650 Group​. “Upscale AI’s SkyHammer architecture represents a decisive step toward purpose-built, open, and predictable interconnects that are designed for AI from the ground up. This approach aligns closely with what we see as the next major shift in data center networking, one where openness, determinism, and scalability define the winners.”

“The AI era demands infrastructure that is open, efficient, truly scalable, and economically sustainable,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Upscale AI’s SkyHammer™ marks a pivotal move toward that vision, speeding up innovation and democratizing AI  through the stack, bridging a key gap in today’s high-performance AI landscape.”

Key Design Philosophies

  • Open Standards First: Interoperable with GPUs, XPUs, and accelerators across hyperscalers and vendors.
  • Adaptability at its Core: Evolves seamlessly with new workloads, models, and deployment styles.
  • From Rack to Supercluster: Topology flexibility without hidden tradeoffs.
  • Telemetry Built In: Deep observability and operational simplicity from day one, not bolted on later.
  • Predictability at Scale: Latency and bandwidth engineered to remain consistent even at extreme scale.

Setting the New Benchmark

SkyHammer is a breakthrough ground-up AI-native architecture built to make compute clusters behave like a single coherent machine.

  • Scale Up, Ground Up: Designed natively for the largest AI systems.
  • Removing Bottlenecks: Eliminates the limits that retrofits cannot.
  • Future Ready: Designed for the next decade of AI superclusters.

Products based on the SkyHammer™ architecture are planned for release in 2026. For more information on how to turbocharge your AI clusters, contact Upscale AI at info@upscaleai.com or visit upscaleai.com