Appendix B – Node Configurations

This appendix provides information on the compute trays and networking configurations.

Compute Trays

Table 10 shows the GB300 compute tray requirements.

Table 10: GB300 compute node/tray requirements

Component	Configuration
CPUs	2x NVIDIA Grace (C2), with total of 72 ARM Neoverse V2 cores connected with NVLink C2C
System Memory	1 TB aggregated CPU LPDDR5 Main Memory
Boot Drive	1 x 2 TB Gen4 M.2 for OS SSD
Data Cache Drive	8 x 4 TB E1.S for Data Cache SSD
NVIDIA GPUs	4x NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPU, with total of 720 GB of aggregated HBM3 memory
Compute Network Adapter	2x NVIDIA Mezzanine Boards with 2x ConnectX-8 800 GB/s NICs in each one
Storage/in-band Network Adapter	1x Dual-port QSFP112 NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU operating at 400 GB/s
Platform Security	TPM 2.0, SHA-256 and support for secure boot
Baseboard Management Controller (BMC)	Host BMC with discrete connection, supports Redfish 1.4 or above, Serial-over-LAN via SSH, IPv6 support, support discovery of BMC IP in-band via Redfish
Host UEFI	UEFI 2.6 compliant BIOS implementation for HTTP(s) network boot

Switches and Cables

Table 11 and Table 12 provides an overview of the switches and cables used in the cluster. The network adapters of the GB300 NVL72, the storage servers, and the control plane servers are included for better understanding of the connectivity requirements.

Table 11: Switching with required inter-switch links, transceivers, and cables

Component	1 SU	2 SUs	3 SUs	4 SUs	5 SUs	6 SUs	7 SUs	8 SUs
GB300 NVL72 Racks	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
GB300 NVL72 Compute Trays	18	36	54	72	90	108	126	144
Grace Processors (two per tray)	36	72	108	144	180	216	252	288
Blackwell GPUs (four per tray)	72	144	216	288	360	432	504	576
ConnectX-8 SuperNIC, Compute fabric (four per tray)	72	144	216	288	360	432	504	576
BlueField-3 B3240 DPU, In-band management, Customer & Storage fabric and Support Servers (one per tray)	18	36	54	72	90	108	126	144
SN5600 Ethernet switch, compute core fabric	12	12	24	24	32	32	44	44
SN5600 Ethernet switch, converged core fabric	2	2	5	6	9	10	11	11
SN2201 leaf switches for OOB management fabric	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16
Twin-port OSFP, 2x400 Gbps Multimode SR8, 50m. Used for switch-to-switch connections (N/S Network)	20	30	192	256	320	384	448	512
MPO/APC to MPO/APC Multi-mode fibers. Switch-to-switch connections (N/S network). Length encoded by xx.	20	30	192	256	320	384	448	512
Twin-port OSFP, 2x400 Gbps Multimode SR8, 50m. Used for switch-to-switch connections (E/W Network)	288	288	576	576	864	864	1152	1152
MPO/APC to MPO/APC Multi-mode fibers. Switch-to-switch connections (E/W network). Length encoded by xx.	288	288	576	576	864	864	1152	1152
100G optical modules for OOB leaf switches, transceiver, 100GbE, QSFP28, MPO, 1301nm, DR1, up to 100m	4	8	12	16	20	24	28	32
Twin-port 2x400G optical transceivers for spine switches, 2xDR4, single-mode, OSFP, 2x MPO/APC optical connectors	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	4
MPO/APC to LC Single-mode fibers. OOB MgmtSW-to-switch. One to Four breakout. Length encoded by xx.	2	2	4	4	6	6	8	8

Table 12: Endpoint connects with required transceivers, and cables

Component	1 SU	2 SUs	3 SUs	4 SUs	5 SUs	6 SUs	7 SUs	8 SUs
GB300 NVL72 Racks	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
GB300 NVL72 Compute Trays	18	36	54	72	90	108	126	144
Grace Processors (two per tray)	36	72	108	144	180	216	252	288
Blackwell GPUs (four per tray)	72	144	216	288	360	432	504	576
ConnectX-8 SuperNIC, Compute fabric (four per tray)	72	144	216	288	360	432	504	576
BlueField-3 B3240 DPU, In-band management, Customer & Storage fabric and Support Servers (one per tray)	18	36	54	72	90	108	126	144
Twin-port OSFP, 2x 400 Gbps Multimode SR8, 50m. Used in switch ports for Compute Node SuperNIC-to-switch connections	72	144	216	288	360	432	504	576
Twin-port OSFP, 2x 400 Gbps Multimode SR8, 50m. Used in switch ports for Compute Node DPU-to-switch connections	18	36	54	72	90	108	126	144
Twin-port OSFP, 2x 400 Gbps Multimode SR8, 50m, used in Compute Node SuperNIC for server-to-switch connections	72	144	216	288	360	432	504	576
Single-port 400 Gbps optical transceivers, multi-mode, QSFP112, used in Compute Node DPU ports for server-to-switch connections	36	72	108	144	180	216	252	288
MPO/APC to MPO/APC Multi-mode fibers. ConnectX-8 SuperNIC-to-switch. Length encoded by xx.	144	288	432	576	720	864	1008	1152
MPO/APC to MPO/APC Multi-mode fibers. DPU B3240-to-switch. Length encoded by xx.	36	72	108	144	180	216	252	288
Twin-port 2x400G optical transceivers for spine switches, 2xDR4, single-mode. Used in switch ports for storage-to-switch connections	2	4	4	6	6	8	8	10
100G optical transceiver, 100GbE, QSFP28, MPO, 1301nm, DR1, up to 100m. Used in upstream storage for 100Gb QSFP28 NRZ connectivity	10	18	28	36	46	54	64	72
MPO/APC to LC Single-mode fibers. Storage-to-switch. One to Four breakout. Length encoded by xx.	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	18
Twin-port 2x400G optical transceivers for spine switches, 2xDR4, single-mode. Used in switch ports for customer network-to-switch connections	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	18
100G optical transceiver, 100GbE, QSFP28, MPO, 1301nm, DR1, up to 100m. Used in upstream customer network for 100Gb QSFP28 NRZ connectivity	18	36	54	72	90	108	126	144
MPO/APC to LC Single-mode fibers. Customer network-to-switch. One to Four breakout. Length encoded by xx.	6	10	14	18	24	28	32	36
Twin-port OSFP, 2x 400 Gbps Multimode SR8, 50m. Used in switch ports for support servers DPU-to-switch connections	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12
Single-port 400 Gbps optical transceivers, multi-mode, QSFP112, used in support server DPU ports for server-to-switch connections	48	48	48	48	48	48	48	48
MPO/APC to 2xMPO/APC breakout multi-mode fibers. Support server ConnectX-8 400Gb (single port) to switch. Length encoded by xx.	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	24
CAT6 RJ45 cable for 1G OOB fabric connections	71	142	213	284	355	426	497	568

For exact BOM and part numbers, please work with your OEM/ODM partners and our NVIDIA support team depending on your specific rack and data center conditions.