Networking Hardware

This section describes the networking hardware used to connect elements of the Enterprise RA

NVIDIA ConnectX-8 HCA (on baseboard)

With support for Ethernet networking up to 800 Gb/s (2x400 Gb/s), the NVIDIA ConnectX-8 SuperNIC (Figure 3) delivers extremely fast, efficient network connectivity, and significantly enhances system performance for AI factories and cloud data center environments. Depending on the deployment scenario and use case, the SuperNIC can be leveraged for dual-plane east-west networking (using 2x400 Gb/s twin-port transceivers) or single plane east-west networking (using 1x400 Gb/s Single-port OSFP transceivers) enabling flexible support for different performance and bandwidth requirements.

Figure 3. NVIDIA ConnectX-8 HCA.

NVIDIA BlueField-3 B3240 DPU

The NVIDIA BlueField-3 B3240 DPU with two 400 GbE ports (Figure 4) is used in the in-band management and storage fabric. The Enterprise RA recommends the use of dual-ports for best performance and flexibility.

Figure 4. NVIDIA BlueField-3 B3240 DPU

NVIDIA SN5610 Switch

The NVIDIA SN5610 switch (Figure 5) offers 64 total ports of 800 Gbps to provide connectivity for Compute (E/W), Customer and Storage (N/S), in-band management

Figure 5. NVIDIA SN5610 Ethernet switch.

NVIDIA SN2201 Switch

The NVIDIA SN2201 switch (Figure 6) offers 48 ports to provide connectivity for out-of-band (OOB) management. OOB management provides consolidated management connectivity for all components in the Enterprise RA.

Figure 6. NVIDIA SN2201 Ethernet switch.