Intelligent Data Centres Issue 56 | Page 69

Napatech leaps into market for data centre Infrastructure Processing Units

Napatech , a leading provider of programmable Network Interface Cards ( NIC ) – including SmartNICs and Infrastructure Processing Units ( IPU ) used in cloud , enterprise and telecom data centre networks – has announced the availability of the industry ' s first production-grade 200 Gbps IPU based upon the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL .

Napatech ' s F2070X IPU is engineered for cloud , enterprise and telecom data centres that are optimised for hybrid multicloud and Edge Computing architectures , supporting applications that may be virtualised ( virtual machines ), cloud-native ( containers ), bare-metal and microservicesbased . IPUs meet the most demanding challenges of modern data centre designs without compromise , including :
• Performance : Hardware-based , line-rate forwarding with sophisticated packet processing
• Efficiency : Offloading of infrastructure processes , reclaiming valuable host CPU resources for applications and services
• Customisation : Software and hardware programmable , delivering hardware performance at the speed of software innovation
• Security : Hard isolation between tenant applications , services and operator infrastructure processes
• Sustainability : Tenant and service scalability per server , reducing cost , power and cooling per rack
• Ease of use : The Intel Xeon D processor simplifies moving the networking and storage stacks from the host to the IPU
Napatech ' s F2070X IPU expands upon the Intel IPU Platform F2000X- PL , which is the architecture selected by early adopters in hyperscale cloud , telecom cloud and next-wave cloud networks . The Napatech F2070X IPU is a turnkey , production-grade , warranted
and supported product based on this leadership Intel reference platform .
The F2070X IPU hardware is packed with the latest Intel technology , including an Intel Xeon D SoC and Intel Agilex 7 FPGA . The 200 Gbps card includes two ports configurable for 10 , 25 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet . Multiple versions are available in various SoC , FPGA and memory configurations and are supported in standard , high-volume servers from leading manufacturers . The F2070X IPU is powered by Napatech ' s feature-rich software and high-velocity roadmap that deliver NIC functionality while offloading and accelerating networking ( OVS ), storage ( NVMe / TCP ), security ( TLS ) and other workloads .
" The value of processing infrastructure applications on a dedicated computing system is widely recognised by
hyperscale cloud service providers ," said Vlad Galabov , Director and Head of Omdia ' s Cloud and Data Center Research Practice . " Adding extra intelligence within server connectivity to process packets in real-time can enable improved security , better computing performance and faster networking within an organisation , thus helping build a competitive advantage . The collaboration between Intel and Napatech creates a compelling product offering for the mass market ."
Henrik Brill Jensen , CEO , Napatech , added : " Napatech is pleased to have reached this important milepost in our collaboration with Intel . Our joint efforts to bring IPU hardware and software solutions to IT organisations of every size unlock new high-growth markets for our products and underpin our aim for transformational growth of our business ." �
intelligent INFRASTRUCTURE
www . intelligentdatacentres . com
69