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Prerequisites#

Before you start the installation, ensure that you meet the following prerequisites.

Hardware Requirements#

Holoscan for Media has specific motherboard, CPU, GPU, and networking card requirements.

Ensure that your system complies with these requirements. For the configurations that NVIDIA has tested with the platform, refer to Tested Configurations.

BIOS Setup#

System tuning is essential for achieving consistently high performance from your hardware.

In particular, the SMPTE ST 2110 specifications impose a strict timing policy on the flow of data across the network stack between compliant senders and receivers. To meet this standard, you should tune your systems to reduce interference from the BIOS and operating system, and between applications running on the same system.

The following steps, based on the Rivermax Performance Tuning Guide, achieve this goal.

Restart the computer, and enter the BIOS or UEFI setup.

Enable SR-IOV support. For details, refer to the specifications for your workstation.

SR-IOV support might include or depend on the following virtualization features. These features are typically in menus such as CPU/Processor Settings and PCIe Settings:

  • Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) or AMD-Vi, also known as the input-output memory management unit (IOMMU): This feature is not strictly required for SR-IOV, but you might need to enable it.

  • PCIe ARI (Alternative Routing-ID Interpretation): Enable this feature to remove the normal limit of eight virtual functions (VFs) for each device.

  • PCIe ATS (Address Translation Services): Enable this feature to improve SR-IOV performance.

  • PCIe ACS (Access Control Services): You can disable this feature to improve performance when you work only with containers, but enable it when you use virtual machines.

  • PCIe AER (Advanced Error Reporting): Enable this feature.

AMD-Specific BIOS Setup#

Configure the following BIOS settings on AMD systems:

  • SMT Mode: Controls simultaneous multithreading (SMT), which lets each CPU core run multiple threads. For most workloads, SMT can remain enabled. However, SMT can affect workloads with strict timing requirements, such as ST 2110 packet pacing, so disable SMT to ensure compliance.

  • APIC Mode: Controls the Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC), which affects how multi-core processors handle interrupts. Set this option to x2APIC.

  • L3 Cache as NUMA Domain: When enabled, the BIOS exposes each Core Complex (CCX) as a separate non-uniform memory access (NUMA) domain. When disabled, the BIOS declares memory addressing and NUMA nodes for each socket. Set this option to Disabled.

  • Core Performance Boost: Allows CPU cores to reach turbo frequencies. This option is often enabled by default, but verify that it is active.

  • Memory Speed: Set to the maximum supported value for best performance.

  • C-State: Controls power-saving states for idle CPUs. Because these states reduce performance, disable Global C-state Control and DF C-states.

  • P-State: Controls CPU power states. To avoid performance loss, disable P-state1, and set DF P-states to P0.

  • Determinism Slider: Set to Power. This setting lets cores scale frequency independently, which improves overall performance.

  • Efficiency Mode: Set to Disabled.

Important

If you plan to run virtual machine workloads, refer to Virtualization Requirements and Supported Configurations.