Networking Hardware

This section describes the networking hardware used to connect components of the RA.

NVIDIA BlueField-3 B3140H SuperNIC

The BlueField-3 B3140H SuperNIC with a single 400 GbE port (Figure 4) is used in the compute fabric.

Figure 4 NVIDIA B3140H SuperNIC.

NVIDIA BlueField-3 B3220 DPU

The NVIDIA BlueField-3 B3220 DPU with two 200 GbE ports (Figure 5) is used in the in-band management and storage fabric. The RA recommends the use of dual-ports for the best performance and flexibility.

Figure 5 NVIDIA BlueField-3 B3220 DPU.

NVIDIA ConnectX-7 SmartNIC (variant)

The NVIDIA ConnectX-7 SmartNIC with one 400 GbE port (Figure 6) can be used for Compute (E-W), Customer and Storage (N-S), in-band management, or storage fabrics. The RA recommends the dual-port BlueField-3 B3220 for the best performance and flexibility within the Customer, Storage (N-S), in-band management, or storage fabrics. The RA recommends the single-port BlueField-3 B3140H for the best performance and flexibility within the Computer (E-W) fabric.

Figure 6 NVIDIA ConnectX-7 SmartNIC with dual ports.

NVIDIA ConnectX-8 C8240 SuperNIC (variant)

The NVIDIA ConnectX8 C8240 SuperNIC with two 400 GbE ports can be used for high bandwidth Compute (E/W) fabrics, providing low latency and advanced offloads optimized for workloads such as AI training and distributed inference. When the design calls for only 400 Gb/s of E/W bandwidth per host, a single 400 GbE port on the C8240 can be enabled for production E/W traffic, while the second port is left unused or reserved for future expansion. This RA recommends the single port BlueField3 B3140H for the best performance and flexibility within the Compute (E/W) fabric.

Figure 7 NVIDIA ConnectX-8 SuperNIC with dual ports.

NVIDIA SN5600/SN5610 Switch

The NVIDIA SN5600/SN5610 switch (Figure 8) offers 64 total ports of 800 Gbps to provide connectivity for Compute (E-W), Customer and Storage (N-S), in-band management, and storage in the RA.

Figure 8 NVIDIA SN5610 Ethernet switch.

NVIDIA SN2201 Switch

The NVIDIA SN2201 switch (Figure 9) offers 48 ports to provide connectivity for out-of-band (OOB) management. OOB management provides consolidated management connectivity for all components in the RA.

Figure 9 NVIDIA SN2201 Ethernet switch.