At GTC, NVIDIA introduced the NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU, its latest data processing unit. A DPU is a specialized processor designed to manage data center tasks like networking, storage, and security more efficiently than traditional central processing units. This new product brings advanced software-defined networking, storage, and cybersecurity acceleration to data centers.
BlueField-3 is the first GPU made for AI and accelerated computing. It lets businesses run applications of any size with high performance and strong security. It excels in multi-tenant, cloud-native environments, delivering fast, software-defined networking, storage, security, and management.
A single BlueField-3 DPU can handle the same data center tasks as up to three hundred CPU cores. CPUs, or central processing units, are traditional processors that execute general-purpose tasks. Offloading tasks to DPUs allows CPUs to focus on important business applications.
Modern hyperscale clouds are driving a fundamental shift in data center architecture, said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. A new type of processor designed to process data center infrastructure software is needed to offload and accelerate the tremendous compute load of visualization, networking, storage, security, and other cloud-native AI services. The time for BlueField DPU has come.
Bluefield Three and Morpheus Put Security Everywhere
BlueField-3 DPUs turn infrastructure into zero-trust environments, authenticating every data center user. By offloading and separating infrastructure from business apps, they secure companies from cloud to edge and boost efficiency.
BlueField-3 is the first DPU to support 400 GB/e/NDR, delivering exceptional performance. It has ten times more computing power than before, 16 ARM A78 cores, and four times faster cryptography. BlueField-3 supports Gen5 PCIe and time-synchronized acceleration.
BlueField-3 DPU offers real-time network monitoring, threat detection, and response. It also serves as the monitoring agent for NVIDIA Morpheus, an advanced AI-powered cybersecurity platform announced today.
NVIDIA DOCA SDK 1.0
BlueField-3 uses NVIDIA DOCA, a data center-on-chip architecture. DOCA provides developers with an open software platform to accelerate software-defined, hardware-accelerated networking, storage, security, and management applications for BlueField DPUs
DOCL is now ready for download. It includes tools for creating and tuning apps for BlueField DPUs, as well as for managing thousands of DPUs in data centers. There are also libraries, APIs, and applications for deep packet inspection and load balancing.
Ecosystem Adoption of NVIDIA DPUs
Top server makers such as Dell, Inspur, Lenovo, and Supermicro include BlueField DPUs in their systems. Global cloud providers such as Baidu and JD.com also use them to speed workloads. The BlueField ecosystem continues to grow with BlueField-3 support from partners across hybrid cloud, security, storage, and edge.
“Red Hat continues to collaborate with NVIDIA as part of an open ecosystem that accelerates innovation while providing access to the latest hardware innovations for composable infrastructure,” said Chris Wright, Chief Technology Officer of Red Hat. “We recognize the need to develop advanced solutions for network security and automation and are excited to support BlueField DPUs and the NVIDIA Morpheus AI framework via Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat OpenShift industry-leading containers, and a Kubernetes-powered hybrid cloud platform.”
“Our mutual customers are racing to harness the power of AI for enterprise applications,” said Lee Caswell, vice president of marketing for the Cloud Platform Business Unit at VMware. The vision of enterprise infrastructure powered by VMware Cloud Foundation and certified with the newly announced NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU shows customers a path to better application performance, a consistent operating model across virtualized and bare-metal environments, and a new model for delivering zero-trust security without jeopardizing performance.
Bluefield 2 Now Available
BlueField-3 DPU works with BlueField-2 DPU, providing strong offloading performance, speeding up applications, and isolating data center workloads. BlueField-2 DPU is available with dual 100 GB Ethernet or InfiniBand and up to eight ARM cores. It includes accelerators for storage, networking, security, streaming, cryptography, and timing for 5G and data centers.
Availability
BlueField-3 DPU is expected to be available for sampling in the first quarter of 2022.
Source: NVIDIA Extends Data Center Infrastructure Processing Roadmap with BlueField-3
